Study of an integrated vortex tube used in hydrogen pre-cooling system

Abstract

In hydrogen refueling stations, a hydrogen pre-cooling system is essential to protect the onboard hydrogen storage cylinder from high-temperature damage during refueling. To address the high power consumption of existing systems, this study proposes an integrated vortex tube hydrogen pre-cooling system. This system combines the vortex tube with a two-stage compression refrigeration cycle to create a new refrigeration device. The vortex tube component is numerically simulated using the standard k-ε turbulence model. Comparative analysis of power consumption and coefficient of performance (COP) is conducted between the new system, single-stage, and two-stage hydrogen pre-cooling systems. The results indicate that the vortex tube, as the pressure ratio increases from 1.5 to 20, reduces power consumption by 26.37%–41.52% compared to the single-stage system. Additionally, it improves the COP by 30.9%–53.8% compared to the single-stage system. Furthermore, compared to the two-stage system, the vortex tube achieves power savings of 4.08%–10.44% and COP improvements of 4.3%–11.7%.