ECO2-RAPJECT · Rapid pulse width modulated CO2 ejector for small-scale vapour-compression systems
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-08-05 → 2021-08-04
- EU contribution
- €207,312
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Rapid pulse width modulated CO2 ejector for small-scale vapour-compression systems
Small-scale cooling and heating systems are widely used in several vital applications, such as food preservation, medicine storage, cooling and heating of living spaces. However, this industry features both a significant direct contribution to global warming due to the massive use of environmentally deleterious refrigerants and a considerable indirect global warming impact owing to its substantial energy voracious. The overall goal of ECO2-RAPJECT was to experimentally and numerically study an innovative small-scale system, offering: (1) negligible direct contribution to global warming thanks to the use of CO2 as the only refrigerant; (2) great energy efficiencies thanks to the implementation of a two-phase ejector featuring a novel flow modulation technique. Establishing the experimental evidence and expertise regarding the new capacity control methodology, being based on the pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the refrigerant flow through the ejector, was the focal point of the project. No simple and cost-effective flow modulation mechanisms, in fact, were available for two-phase ejectors installed in small-scale cooling and heating systems. It was found that the PWM ejector offers energy savings above 10 %, thus offering much higher energy efficiency enhancements than today’s competitors. Having no practical size or application constraints, the suggested capacity control mechanism can lead to lay robust foundations for a significantly more sustainable future in the whole cooling and heating sector.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Small-scale Refrigeration, Cooling&Heating (RC&H) sector plays a vital role in modern life promoting health, comfort and economic prosperity. On the other hand, it is also responsible for a considerable contribution to global warming. The urgent need for an eco-friendlier future has forced the European Union (EU) to implement stringent energy and environmental policies, affecting this sector significantly. These have led such a large and ever-growing industry to suffer for the lack of a long-term solution complying with safety and EU’s requirements.This project aims at filling the aforementioned technological gap by studying an innovative and future-proof small-scale vapour-compression RC&H unit relying on: (1) CO2, being a non-flammable, non-toxic and climate-friendly refrigerant, as the sole working fluid and (2) a two-phase ejector with a novel capacity control technique. The core of the work is to establish the experimental evidence and expertise regarding the innovative capacity control methodology for CO2 two-phase ejectors. At present, two-phase ejectors cannot readily be capacity controlled without penalizing ejector and system efficiency in small-scale RC&H units. As concrete value and impact, this project will lay robust foundations for a significantly more sustainable future and thus pave the way for remarkable enhancements for business and society concerning the RC&H sector.The fellow is a proficient researcher with a strong background in large-scale CO2 refrigeration systems using two-phase ejectors. The results and the experience that the applicant has obtained make him the ideal candidate for successfully achieving the project objectives. This work is a unique opportunity for the fellow to become an independent scientist, enhancing and developing new skills in a leading research field, such as the eco-friendly RC&H sector. These competences are highly valued in academia and industry in the context of the EU policies and the Paris climate agreement.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · Kongens LyngbyCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union