Gas-Liquid Separator With Internal Heat Exchanger for CO2 Refrigeration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vapor compression refrigerating systems with integrated inside heat exchangers face challenges in reducing costs, complexity, and refrigeration ability when using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, particularly due to elevated high-pressure side pressures and supercritical conditions leading to decreased refrigeration performance.
Innovation Solution
A vapor compression refrigerating system design that integrates a gas-liquid separator and a heat exchanger within or surrounding each other, reducing the number of parts, costs, and weight, while maintaining or improving refrigeration performance by allowing heat exchange between the refrigerant at the radiator and both gas and liquid portions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If an inside heat exchanger is provided as a single, separated piece of equipment, then heat exchange function is achieved, but the number of parts increases and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The inside heat exchanger is integrated with the gas-liquid separator to form a single combined component. The heat exchanger is disposed within the gas-liquid separator, sharing the same housing structure. This merging eliminates the need for separate coupling portions and reduces the total number of parts while maintaining the heat exchange function between high-pressure and low-pressure refrigerant.
2Device complexity
If the inside heat exchanger is integrated with the gas-liquid separator around the gas-liquid separator, then the number of parts is reduced, but the configuration becomes complicated and manufacturing difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The inside heat exchanger is nested within the gas-liquid separator housing. The heat exchanger is disposed inside the enclosed space of the gas-liquid separator, utilizing the internal volume efficiently. This nesting arrangement simplifies the overall configuration compared to external integration while maintaining ease of manufacture, as each component can be manufactured separately and then assembled within the shared housing.
3Temperature
If carbon dioxide refrigerant pressure is reduced at the radiator outlet, then refrigerant can be evaporated, but refrigeration ability substantially decreases due to supercritical conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The inside heat exchanger performs preliminary cooling of the high-pressure refrigerant before it reaches the gas-liquid separator. By exchanging heat between the high-pressure refrigerant and low-pressure refrigerant in advance, the system prevents the high-pressure refrigerant from reaching supercritical conditions that would occur if pressure reduction happened too early at the radiator outlet. This preliminary action maintains refrigeration ability while enabling proper evaporation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes the temperature and pressure parameter changes of the refrigerant through the inside heat exchanger. The heat exchange process changes the enthalpy and temperature parameters of the high-pressure refrigerant, transforming it from a supercritical state toward a state suitable for evaporation without premature pressure reduction, thereby maintaining refrigeration efficiency.
4Stress or pressure
If high-pressure refrigerant specific enthalpy is decreased at the radiator exit, then high-pressure side pressure is elevated, but coefficient of performance can be improved and liquid compression prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The inside heat exchanger enables continuous heat exchange between high-pressure and low-pressure refrigerant streams. This continuous heat transfer process gradually adjusts the specific enthalpy of the high-pressure refrigerant, preventing sudden pressure elevations while maintaining efficient heat transfer. The continuous action allows the system to achieve both pressure control and high coefficient of performance by optimizing the heat exchange process throughout the refrigerant cycle.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design reduces system complexity, costs, and weight while maintaining or enhancing refrigeration ability and coefficient of performance by effectively managing refrigerant pressure and superheating, thus overcoming the limitations of existing systems.
Implementation Method 1
a heat exchanger disposed within, e.g., surrounded by, the gas-liquid separator... exchange heat between refrigerant at an exit side of a radiator and refrigerant at a suction side of a compressor
Implementation Method 2
the gas-liquid separator 206 then separates a gas portion of the refrigerant from a liquid portion of the refrigerant
Implementation Method 3
The high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant compressed by a compressor 201
Implementation Method 4
heat is exchanged between the refrigerant and an outside fluid
Data Source
AI summary
A module, such as a module configured to be used in a refrigeration system, includes a gas-liquid separator which is configured to receive a first refrigerant, to separate the first refrigerant into a gas portion of the first refrigerant and a liquid portion of the first refrigerant, and to transmit the gas portion of the first refrigerant. The module also includes a heat exchanger which is configured to receive a second refrigerant and to exchange heat between the second refrigerant and the gas portion of the first refrigerant and/or the liquid portion of the first refrigerant. Moreover, the heat exchanger is disposed within the gas-liquid separator.