Performances of the mixed-gases Joule–Thomson refrigeration cycles for cooling fixed-temperature heat loads

Abstract

Numerous mixed-gases refrigeration cycle configurations based on Joule–Thomson effects were developed in the past several decades. In this paper, comprehensive thermodynamic analyses were made on two typical cycle configurations to learn their performance for cooling fixed-temperature heat loads. One is the single-stage cycle without phase separators; the other is the auto-cascade refrigeration cycle which has at least one phase separator. An exergy model was developed to analyze the thermodynamic performance of those refrigeration cycles. Comprehensive comparisons were made on the performance of the recuperative throttling cycles using multicomponent mixture as refrigerant, including extensive simulations and optimizations of mixtures and cycle configurations. The results show that the auto-cascade cycle can improve thermodynamic performance in the case of using mixtures with increased fraction of high-boiling components, however, degrade the performance when using mixtures with increased fraction of low-boiling components. The results also show that the mixed refrigerant is the most important designing parameter in the design of such mixed-gases refrigeration system. Different cycle configuration has different optimal mixture composition. When using optimal mixtures, both cycles (separation and non-separation) can provide approximately equal performance.