Advanced Exergy Analysis of a Compression–Absorption Cascade Refrigeration System

Abstract

This work presents a theoretical thermodynamic study of a compression–absorption cascade refrigeration system using R134a and a lithium bromide–water solution as working fluids. First and second law of thermodynamics analyses were carried out in order to develop an advanced exergetic analysis, by splitting the total irreversibility and that of every component. The potential for improvement of the system is quantified, in the illustrated base-case 55.4% of the irreversibility is of avoidable nature and it could be reduced. The evaporator is the component that shows a significant potential for improvement, followed by the cascade heat exchanger, the compressor, and finally, the generator. The results of the advanced exergetic analysis can be very useful for future design and experimentation of these kinds of systems.

Comparative Study of a Compression–Absorption Cascade System Operating with NH3-LiNO3, NH3-NaSCN, NH3-H2O, and R134a as Working Fluids

“…This work presents a summary of literature of the main advances in compression-absorption systems for refrigeration, assuming the cascade configuration. A summary is shown in Table 1; the compressive review considers the period from 2006 through 2020 and the contributions of the articles [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. As can be seen, the research line on cascade configuration involving the absorption cycle and compression cycle has been growing over time, and mainly carried out in the theoretical and thermodynamic field.…”

“…The heat losses from the equipment, the pressure drop in the piping, and the main components are considered negligible [20].…”