Experimental evaluation of the effect of mechanical subcooling on a hydrocarbon heat pump system

Amir hossein Shiravi, Morteza Ghanbarpour and Bjorn Palm

Energy, 2023, vol. 274, issue C

Abstract: In addition to the progressive movement of countries towards the use of renewable energy sources, efficient energy consumption is another important goal set by the International Energy Agency. In heat pump technology, the use of mechanical subcooling system has a high potential for this purpose. In this experimental study, the impact of using a mechanical subcooling cycle on the performance of a heat pump system is investigated. The system is designed to supply heat at condensing temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C. Propane and isobutane are used as low GWP refrigerants in the main and secondary cycles, respectively. The results revealed that both the COP and heating capacity of the system are increased by adding the mechanical subcooling cycle up to 15.1% and 34%, respectively. To express the improvement of the system performance by means of the TEWI index, a reduction of 9–13% is calculated when the mechanical subcooling cycle is included. It is also of interest that the cooling coefficient of performance (COP2) is improved by adjoining a secondary cycle as a liquid subcooler. An optimal power ratio between the basic cycle and the secondary cycle was obtained, which is consistent with the simulation results.

Keywords: heat Pump; mechanical subcooling; Hydrocarbons; Heating capacity; COP; TEWI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223008009
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:274:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223008009

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127406

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().