Subcritical and Supercritical Operation of Innovative Thermal Mechanical Refrigeration System

Abstract

Around 17% of the global generated energy is consumed for residential, commercial, and transportation refrigeration. The current cooling technologies utilize refrigerants with high Ozone Depletion and Global Warming Potentials. Furthermore, the current technologies are expensive alongside with toxicity and flammability hazards. On the other side, energy produced by combustion of fossil fuels result in substantial amounts of waste heat. So, it is necessary to develop new refrigeration technologies that utilize waste heat as a source of energy with eco-friendly refrigerants with zero ozone depletion potential and zero global warming potential. Also, this Thermal Mechanical Refrigeration (TMR) technology improves the energy efficiency of the source of waste heat system and minimizes the emissions of the carbon dioxide (CO2). In this study, a novel thermo-mechanical refrigeration system is proposed. It operates with low-grade energy sources (such as waste heat) at temperature range of 60 oC to 100 oC. Furthermore, it has the advantage of working with low-frequency driver-compressor unit, which eliminates noise and increases its lifetime. Moreover, the TMR system is adaptable to commercial, transportation, and residential refrigeration applications.