Performance Investigation of an Automotive Hybrid Air-Conditioning System without and with an Internal Heat Exchanger (IHX) using R1234ze(E) as Substitute for R134a

Abstract

In recent years, there is a growing attention drawn to the area of the technology of combined power/refrigeration cycle, due to its high capability in energy saving. In this study, tow automotive hybrid air-conditioning systems without (ORC–ACS) and with internal heat exchanger (ORC–ACS/IHX) driven by mechanical power of organic Rankine cycle (ORC) from waste heat of engine coolant are proposed to generate cooling by using R134a and R1234ze(E) as working fluids in sub-cycles (ACS and ACS/IHX). A computer code was developed and implemented in MATLAB environment for solving engineering equations to calculate performance parameters of systems such as : coefficient of performances (COPACS and COPACS/IHX), compressor works input (Wcomp(ACS) and Wcomp(ACS/IHX)) of sub-cycles (ACS and ACS/IHX), and overall performance (COPoval) of combined cycles (ORC–ACS and ORC–ACS/IHX). Assuming 5.0 kW cooling capacity needed, the results of current analysis highlight that (ORC–ACS/IHX) system working with (R134a and R1234ze(E)) produces an increment of the coefficient of performance and lower compressor work input compared to the (ORC–ACS) sys-tem. As a result of the study, when Tclnt reaches 150 °C, the Wcomp(ACS/IHX) of the (ORC–ACS/IHX) system with R1234ze(E) reduced by 7.35 % compared to the (ORC–ACS) system with R1234ze(E). Moreover, the COPACS/IHX and COPoval values were enhanced by 7.94 % and 7.92 %, respectively. Overall, the results confirm that (ORC–ACS/IHX) system with R1234ze(E) can be useful for automotive air conditioning applications.

Keywords

• Automotive air-conditioning system;
• Engine coolant;
• IHX;
• Performance parameters;
• R1234ze(E)

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