CO2 COOLING SYSTEMS, CO2 UNIT COOLERS/EVAPORATORS, CO2 GAS COOLERS

Hasan ACL Mechanical Engineer

Hatice CANBAZ Mechanical Engineer

Fatih KASAP Mechanical Engineer

Selim ERBL Mechanical Engineer

FRTERM A.. R&D Department

General Description Because of its good environmental properties there is renewed and widespread interest in carbon dioxide (CO2 or R-744) as a refrigerant. Because of its low critical-point temperature (31,06 C) and high pressure (73,8 bar), CO2 presents some unusual technological requirements compared to conventional refrigerants. Another constraint in applying CO 2 is its relatively high triple point (solid, liquid, gas) at -56,6 C and coincident pressure of 5,1 bar. CO2 was used in the early stages of the refrigeration industry, but it lost the competition with halocarbon refrigerants because of its high operating pressure and the loss of capacity and coefficient of performance when rejecting heat near or above the critical point. Because the negative effect of halocarbon refrigerants on environment, that CO 2 started to be used recently. New machine and heat exchanger technology and system components allow CO2 to reach competitive efficiency levels for transcritic cycle especially in northern countries and for sub-critic cascade cycle in southern countries. Recently, CO2 has been intensely studied for application as the primary refrigerant in transcritical mobile air conditioners, vending machines, supermarkets, cold rooms, food production and process industry, industrial ice cream machineries and heat pumps.[1][2] Environmental Properties It has no ozone depletion potential (ODP=0), and negligible direct global warming potential (GWP=1). (Reference Table 1) Refrigerant (direct effect) and CO2 emissions from energy supply to refrigerating systems (indirect effect) both contribute to greenhouse gas emissions expressed by using Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI). Therefore, refrigeration systems with a high degree of emission are preferred application areas for CO2 as alternative refrigerant, as long as the energy efficiency, defined as Coefficient of Performance (COP), can be kept at the same level [3].

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Safety and Reliability Toxicity. CO2 is in Class A which signifies refrigerants for which toxicity has not been identified at concentrations less than or equal to 400 ppm. Flammability. CO2 is non-flammable class 1 refrigerant. Class 1 indicates refrigerants that do not show flame propagation when tested in air at 21C and 101 kPa (Reference Table 2) Inhalation safety. Although CO2 is usually regarded as non-toxic there are physiological effects from breathing air with a CO2-concentration above a few percent. The IDLH (Immediate Danger to Life and Health) concentration a maximum allowable concentration of about 5% by volume seems to be a reasonable limit.[4] Thermophysical Properties CO2 has a number of attractive thermophysical properties and other characteristics. Compared to counterpart halocarbon refrigerants, it has low viscosity, high volumetric capacity, high thermal conductivity, and high vapor density. (Reference Table 3) Cost Unit price of CO2 is relatively cheaper than the conventional refrigerants. It has low level of price and low level of operation cost. (Reference Table 4) [1] Ashrae Handbook, 2006 [2] Friterm A. R&D Technical Documents [3] IIR, February 2000 [4] M. H. Kim et al, 2004
Table 1. Environmental Properties of Various Widely Known Refrigerants Table 2. Classification of Various Widely Known Refrigerants Flammability [b] [5] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Refrigerant

ODP [4]

GWP [4]

Refrigerant R 11 R 12 R 22 R 134a R 410a R 404a R 407c R 507a R 744-CO2

Refrigerant Classification

Toxicity[a] [5]

R 11 R 12 R 22 R 134a R 410a R 404a R 407c R 507a R 744-CO2

1 0,82 0,034 0 0 0 0 0 0

4600 10600 1700 1300 1980 3780 1650 3850 1

CFC CFC HCFC HFC HFC HFC HFC HFC Natural Refrigerant

A A A A A A A A A

R 717-NH3 0 <1 ODP: Ozone Depletion Potential(R11=1 admitted) GWP: Global Warming Potential (CO2=1 admitted) [4] Thermophsical Properties R744, International Institute of Refrigeration, 2003

R 717-NH3

Natural Refrigerant

[a] *Class A signifies refrigerants for which toxicity has not been identified at concentrations less than or equal to 400 ppm; *Class B signifies refrigerants for which there is evidence of toxicity at concentrations below 400 ppm [b] * Class 1 indicates refrigerants that do not show flame propagation when tested in air at 21C and 101 kPa *Class 2 indicates refrigerants having a lower flammability limit of more than 0.10 kg/m3 at 21C and 101 kPa and a heat of combustion of less than 19 kJ/kg [5] Classification of Refrigerants, International Institute of Refrigeration, 2001

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Table 3. Thermophisical Properties of Various Widely Used Refrigerants [6]

Tcrit, (C)

Pcrit, (bar)

Liquid Phase Density f, (kg/m3) [c]

Gas Phase Density g, (kg/m3) [d]

Spesific Heat Capacity cp, (kj/kg) [c]

Volumetric Capacity (kj/m3) [c]

Thermal Conductivity k, (W/m.K) [c]

Dynamic Viscosity , (mPa.s) [c]

R 11 R 12 R 22 R 134a R 410a R 404a R 407c R 507a R 744-CO2 R 717-NH3

198 112 96,2 101,1 72,13 72 86,74 70,6 31 132,3

44,1 42,2 49,9 40,6 49,3 37,3 46,2 37,05 73,7 113,3

1536,9 1400,1 1285,7 1298,9 1175 1154,8 1240,8 1161,1 934,26 640,28

2,36 17,185 20,41 13,9 28,82 29,91 18,86 30,98 94,148 3,31

0,85 0,93 1,16 1,3 1,5 1,3 1,4 1,37 2,5 4,41

450,76 2636,52 4205,28 2773,75 6566,35 4953,99 3973,24 5055,32 22089,00 4192,51

0,09 0,62 0,09 0,09 0,1 0,07 0,01 0,072 0,11 0,56

0,5 0,25 0,22 0,27 0,16 0,18 0,21 0,18 0,101 0,172

[c] For saturated liquid at -1,1C [d] For saturated vapor at -1,1C [6] Lemmon et al. NIST, 2007.

Figure 1. CO2 Phase Diagram [7]

Figure 2. CO2 log p - h Diagram [7]

[7] Food Retail CO2 Refrigeration Systems, Danfoss,

2009
Table 4. Comparative Prices of Various Widely Known Refrigerants [8]

R22 3,54 /kg

R134a 9,38 /kg

R404a 8,85 /kg

R407c 10,68 /kg

R410a 9,58 /kg

R507 19,53 /kg

R744-CO2 0,52 /kg

R717-NH3 1,3 /kg

[8] DuPont - Canta A, Gne Gaz Ltd. ti. May, 2010

Transcritical CO2 Cycle Compared with other refrigerants commonly used in the refrigeration industry CO 2 has very low critical temperature: 31,06 C (73,8 bar), so that heat discharge into the ambient atmosphere above this temperature is impossible through condensation as is the case in the usual vapor-compression cycle; CO2 can only be used in this cycle when the heat discharge temperature is lower than the critical temperature. For heat rejection at supercritical pressure, the refrigerant can only be cooled in a gaseous state, without being condensed. This cycle is known as the transcritical cycle. [9]

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Subcritical CO2 Cycle The classic refrigeration cycle, we are all familiar with, is subcritical i.e. the entire range of temperatures and pressures are below the critical point and above the triple point. A single stage subcritical CO2 system is simple but it also has some disadvantages because of its limited temperature range and high pressure. So a cascade system can be designed. In a cascade refrigeration system there can be more than one refrigerant depending on the application or requirement of the plant. In such a cascade system, each refrigerant circuit is separate. [10, 11] System Components The main components of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle are the gas cooler, compressor, evaporator and expansion valve. The Method Simple one stage transcritical CO2 cycle: Saturated vapor at state 6 is superheated to state 1 in the internal heat exchanger and then compressed in the compressor to state 2. The carbon dioxide at state 2, which is above the critical point, is cooled in the gas cooler to state 3 by rejecting heat to the atmosphere. Unlike in a condenser, in the gas cooler the heat rejection takes place with a gliding temperature. Carbon dioxide at high pressure is further cooled from 3 to 4 in the internal heat exchanger. After the heat exchanger, the carbon dioxide is expanded through the expansion device to state 5, which is the inlet to the evaporator. The state of the refrigerant changes from 5 to 6 as it evaporates in the evaporator by extracting heat from the external fluid (cooling effect).[4] One stage with gas bypass transcritical cycle: The difference of this cycle and simple one stage transcritical cycle is, after expansion from state 4 to 5 the mixture of liquid and gas CO2 is separated. After separation saturated liquid at state 6 is expanded through the second expansion device to state 7 which is the inlet to the evaporator. After evaporation CO2 leaves from the evaporator at state 8. Meanwhile the saturated vapor at state 9 is expanded to evaporation pressure. And a mixture is occurred at state 11. Finally saturated vapor at state 11 is superheated to state 1 in the internal heat exchanger. CO2 subcritic cascade cycle: For the sample application CO2 is used as a refrigerant for the low temperature circuit and NH3 is used for the high temperature circuit. The condenser of the CO2 circuit acts as the evaporator of the other refrigerant circuit [3]. For better understanding please refer Figure 3 which shows a schematic arrangement for a CO2 / NH3 cascade system.

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Sample Simple One Stage Transcritical Cycle 1-2 Isentrophic compession in Compressor 2-3 Isobaric heat removal in Gas Cooler 3-4 Cooling in Internal Heat Exchanger 4-5 Isenthalpic expansion in Expansion Valve 5-6 Isobaric evaporation in Transcritical Evaporator 6-1 Super heating in Internal Heat Exchanger

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Sample One Stage with Gas Bypass Transcritical Cycle 1-2 Isentrophic compression in Compressor 2-3 Isobaric heat removal in Gas Cooler 3-4 Cooling in Internal Heat Exchanger 4-5 Isenthalpic expansion in Expansion Valve 5- Seperation of phases in Reciever 6-7 Isenthalpic expansion of liquid in Expansion Valve 7-8 Isobaric evaporation in Transcritical Evaporator 9-10 Isenthalpic expansion of flash gas in Expansion Valve 11-1 Super heating in Internal Heat Exchanger

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Sample CO2 Subcritic Cascade Cycle 1-2 Isentrophic compression in CO2 Compressor 2-3 Isobaric condensation of CO2 in Cascade Condenser (shell and tube) 3-4 Isenthalpic expansion of liquid CO2 in Expansion Valve 4-1 Isobaric evaporation in Subcritic Evaporator 5-6 Isentrophic compression in NH3 Compressor 6-7 Isobaric condensation in NH3 Condenser 7-8Isenthalpic expansion in NH3 Expansion Valve 8-5 Isobaric evaporation in of NH3 in Cascade Condenser (shell and tube)

[9] Thermophsical Properties R744, International Institute of Refrigeration, 2003 [10] Food Retail CO2 Refrigeration Systems, Danfoss, 2009 [11] Air condition and refrigeration Journal, Oct-Dec 2002

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Friterm CO2 Projects A cascade system has been designed with the refrigerant R744 and R404a for the CO 2 Project.

There is a Heat Exchanger Performance Test Facility in Friterm A R&D department which has an ability of testing R744 products working transcritical and subcritical conditions. The datas of R&D tests are used to create. CO2 module in FRTCOILS program which is developed by Friterm R&D. Product design and capacity calculations are made by using this program.

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FRTERM CO2 UNIT COOLERS TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FEATURES AND APPLICATION CO2 Evaporators are specially designed for small and medium cold room and frozen storage room applications which are working with subcritic and transcritic cycles. The capacity range is 1,1 kW 80,7 kW. 5 different fin spacing as 4-6-8-10-12 mm. Compact and highly efficient coils have these features: Aluminum fins, 3/8" and 1/2" copper or special alloy of copper tubes Maximum working pressure 45 bar. Inlet and outlet connections are copper and steel Refrigerant distributor, Delivered under positive pressure CASING Robust and all-round powder coated (RAL 9016) galvanized steel casing parts, provide decorative, high corrosion resistance and smooth surface finish. Proper for food processing applications. Intermediate drain pan prevents air by-pass. Double skin drain pan with insulation is optional. Hinged/Folding drain tray is standard for all models. This application provides easy cleaning and maintenance Stainless steel casing is optional. Side panels are removable as standard for easy maintenance FANS 230 V, 50 Hz, 1400 rpm. Motor protection IP44 and IP 54; Insulation class B and F. Recommended working conditions between -30C, -40C and +55C. Lubrication-free closed type motors. Fan guards according to safety standards. Different kinds of motors available as optional. DEFROST Standard electrical defrost system: E1 type (Light duty)defrost system for 0C / +5C cold room applications.Defrost heaters are applied on heat exchanger coil. E2 type (Heavy duty) defrost system for -35C / 0C frozen room applications. Defrost heaters are applied on both heat exchanger coil and drain tray. Drain line heaters, fan hausing heaters, hot gas defrost system and water defrost system are optional.

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FRTERM CO2 GAS COOLERS TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FEATURES AND APPLICATION Casing of CHS series gas coolers are made of electrostatically powder coated galvanized steel or aluminum (RAL 7044) that provides excellent corrosion protection COILS Heat Exchangers are manufactured with V type Corrugated aluminum fins, 5/16 copper or special alloy copper tubes. Inlet and outlet connections are copper and steel. The system delivered under positive pressure. Maximum working pressure 120 bar. FANS Properties of highly efficient axial type fans are: Standard (S) and Low (L) noise level fans are 230 V, 50 Hz, 1 PHz; 1400 rpm Motor insulation class "B" and "F" protection IP44 and IP5 and recommended working conditions -30C and -40C /+55C

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