Open Access

ARTICLE

Exergy Analysis of a Solar Vapor Compression Refrigeration System Using R1234ze(E) as an Environmentally Friendly Replacement of R134a

Zakaria Triki¹, Ahmed Selloum¹, Younes Chiba¹, Hichem Tahraoui^1,2, Dorsaf Mansour³, Abdeltif Amrane^4,*, Meriem Zamouche⁵, Mohammed Kebir⁶, Jie Zhang⁷
1 Laboratory of Biomaterials and Transport Phenomena, University of Medea, Medea, 26000, Algeria
2 Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés Chimiques, Department of Process Engineering, University of Ferhat Abbas, Setif, 19000, Algeria
3 Chemistry Department, College of Sciences, University of Hail, Hail, 55223, Saudi Arabia
4 Univ Rennes, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes, CNRS, ISCR–UMR6226, Rennes, F-35000, France
5 Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Médicament et le Développement Durable (ReMeDD), Faculty of Process Engineering, University of Salah Boubnider Constantine 3, Constantine, 25000, Algeria
6 Research Unit on Analysis and Technological Development in Environment (UR-ADTE/CRAPC), Bou-Ismail, Tipaza, 42004, Algeria
7 School of Engineering, Merz Court, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
* Corresponding Author: Abdeltif Amrane. Email:
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Innovative Heat Transfer Fluids for Enhanced Energy Sustainability in Thermal Systems)

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer https://doi.org/10.32604/fhmt.2024.052223

Received 27 March 2024; Accepted 13 June 2024; Published online 08 July 2024

Abstract

Refrigeration plays a significant role across various aspects of human life and consumes substantial amounts of electrical energy. The rapid advancement of green cooling technology presents numerous solar-powered refrigeration systems as viable alternatives to traditional refrigeration equipment. Exergy analysis is a key in identifying actual thermodynamic losses and improving the environmental and economic efficiency of refrigeration systems. In this study exergy analyze has been conducted for a solar-powered vapor compression refrigeration (SP-VCR) system in the region of Ghardaïa (Southern Algeria) utilizing R1234ze(E) fluid as an eco-friendly substitute for R134a refrigerant. A MATLAB-based numerical model was developed to evaluate losses in different system components and the exergy efficiency of the SP-VCR system. Furthermore, a parametric study was carried-out to analyze the impact of various operating conditions on the system’s exergy destruction and efficiency. The obtained results revealed that, for both refrigerants, the compressor exhibited the highest exergy destruction, followed by the condenser, expansion valve, and evaporator. However, the system using R1234ze(E) demonstrated lower irreversibility compared to that using R134a refrigerant. The improvements made with R1234ze are 71.95% for the compressor, 39.13% for the condenser, 15.38% for the expansion valve, 5% for the evaporator, and 54.76% for the overall system, which confirm the potential of R1234ze(E) as a promising alternative to R134a for cooling applications.

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Keywords

Solar cooling; vapor compression refrigeration; eco-friendly refrigerant; thermodynamic losses; exergy analysis

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