Theoretical performance evaluation of ejector and economizer with parallel compression configurations in high temperature heat pumps

Abstract

Abstract Climate change evolution urges us to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As one of the main contributors, the industrial sector requires cleaner methods of heat production, such as high temperature heat pumps (HTHP) with the highest energy efficiency. Facing this challenge, this paper provides a performance comparison of the ejector and economizer with parallel compression configurations in HTHPs for low-grade waste heat recovery. A single-stage cycle has been used as a reference configuration to compare the proposed options. The internal heat exchanger (IHX) is included in all the configurations to extend the analysis and illustrate the influence of this component in high temperature applications. Moreover, alternative low-GWP refrigerants have been analyzed in order to replace the reference working fluid HFC-245fa. Ejector and economizer with parallel compression configurations with IHX provide a coefficient of performance (COP) improvement of up to 36% and 72.5%, respectively, using HFC-245fa for a heating temperature production of 140 °C. Moreover, the volumetric heating capacity (VHC) increases around 36% for the ejector cycle and 80% for the economizer with parallel compression cycle with IHX. HC-601, HFO-1336mzz(Z), and R-514 have the most significant COP improvement compared to HFC-245fa, along with the highest VHC drop. Multi-objective evaluation illustrates that single-stage and ejector configurations with IHX have similar results, whereas the economizer with parallel compression cycle with IHX presents a significant COP and VHC improvement. HCFO-1233zd(E) and HCFO-1224yd(Z) presents the proper trade-off between COP and VHC.