In this system, heat is added to the generator to vaporize some of the solution of ammonia and water.

The saturated vapour, rich in ammonia since the boiling point of ammonia is lower than water, enters the condenser where heat is rejected to the atmosphere, reducing the fluid to a saturated liquid. It is then throttled to the lower pressure before entering the evaporator where it picks up heat from the space to be cooled. In the absorber, the saturated vapour is dissolved into the ammonia-weak liquid from the generator. This reaction is exothermic and the amount of ammonia that can be dissolved is inversely proportional to the temperature of the solution. [8]. As with all products, refinement continually takes place throughout the products life. a single-effect chiller). The double-effect chiller has two condensers and two generators. processes as the number of stages increase. Isothermal processes allow efficiencies to approach the Carnot efficiency which is the highest thermodynamic efficiency possible between two given temperature regions. These chillers are typically used for large commercial applications due to their high cost. One The Therefore, heat must be rejected to the atmosphere. From there, the saturated liquid solution is pumped back to the generator and the cycle is complete

such refinement produced the double-effect absorption chiller (the chiller described above is idea is that by adding and rejecting heat in stages, these processes approach isothermal

Purpose of Study This study determines the feasibility of integrating an absorption chiller with a residential cogeneration unit to produce a trigeneration unit suitable for application in residential homes in Toronto, Ontario. The aim was to decrease the electrical demand on the grid and to increase the efficiency of the cogeneration unit during the summer months. The absorption chiller is the perfect candidate since it is heat driven and it compresses a liquid rather than a vapour. Liquids have specific volumes typically three orders of magnitude smaller than vapours' and pump power is proportional to specific volume.

To investigate the feasibility of this trigeneration system, a hypothetical building was created to determine the heating and cooling load. A chiller was then designed to meet the cooling load. The final step compared the economics of this chiller and cogeneration unit with other systems that homeowners may be interested in installing. System Design and Components This chapter describes the process used to create and analyze the proposed system. Section one introduces the computer modeling software used to create the hypothetical house. The following section describes the procedures used to create the absorption chiller and presents a schematic and the operating characteristics of the chiller. The final section examines the existing Honda Cogeneration Unit and its design specifications relevant to this particular application. Absorption Chiller Design The first step involved deciding on the type of chiller to design. Initially, the goal was to design a GAX-type chiller since it was claimed to have the highest COP of single-effect absorption chillers [6]. However, once into the design process, it was determined that Therefore, the system found in Cengel and Boles the design of the system would require more time than was available for the completion of this study due to its complexity. text, shown in Figure 3.2.1, was selected due to its inherent increase in COP from the basic cycle and its increased simplicity compared to the GAX cycle. For this application, the solar input was replaced by the heat from the cogeneration units exhaust. Figure 3.2.1 shows a schematic of the chiller designed for this study where the circled numbers are the state numbers.

Since all the above effects are detrimental to the performance of the system, it is necessary to minimize the concentration of water vapour in ammonia at the inlet to the condenser. This requires additional components, namely a rectification column and a dephlegmator between generator and absorber, which increases the design complexity and cost and also reduces the system COP compared to water-lithium bromide system.

Properties of ammonia-water solutions

16.2.1. Composition Similar to water-lithium bromide solutions, the composition of ammonia-water solution is also expressed either in mass fraction () or mole fraction (x). However, for ammonia-water solutions, the mass and mole fractions are defined in terms of ammonia. For example the mass fraction is defined as the ratio of mass of ammonia to the total mass of solution, i.e.,

Where mA and mW are the mass of ammonia and water in solution, respectively.

Similarly, the mole fraction of ammonia-water solution is defined as:

Where nA and nW are the number of moles of ammonia and water in solution, respectively. The number of moles of ammonia and water can easily be obtained from their respective masses in solution and molecular weights, thus;

Vapour pressure of ammonia-water solutions Liquid ammonia and water are completely miscible in all proportions, hence can form solutions of all concentrations from 0 to 1, at normal temperatures. The effect of ammonia in water is to lower the vapour pressure of water; similarly the effect of water in ammonia is to lower ammonias vapour pressure. Thus the total pressure over ammonia-water solutions is made up of partial pressure of ammonia and partial pressure of water vapour, and is always in between the saturation pressures of pure ammonia and water.

If Raoults law is applied to ammonia-water mixtures, then the total pressure at any temperature, Ptotal is given by:

Where x is the liquid phase mole fraction of ammonia, P and PA W are the saturation pressures of pure ammonia and pure water at that temperature.

However, similar to water-lithium bromide solutions, ammonia-water solutions also deviate from ideal solution behaviour predicted by Raoults law in a negative manner, i.e., at a given temperature of the solution the actual vapour pressure will be less than that predicted by Raoults law (activity coefficient is much smaller than 1.0).

For example, at a mass fraction of 0.4 and temperature of 40oC, Raoults law predicts a vapour pressure of 6.47 bar, whereas the measured vapour pressure is 3.029bar. The vapour pressure data of ammonia-water solutions is also available in the form of Dhring and other P-T- plots. Composition of ammonia-water vapour Since the vapor above ammonia-water liquid consists of both ammonia and water vapour, it is essential to distinguish between the composition in liquid phase and composition in vapour phase. The superscripts L and V will be used to distinguish between liquid and vapour phase compositions. Thus L stands for liquid phase mass fraction and V stands for vapour phase mass fraction. Though the vapour phase composition can be obtained by assuming ideal solution behaviour, it is observed that the actual vapour composition deviates from that predicted by ideal mixture equations. Based on experimental measurements, charts have been developed for obtaining composition of ammonia-water mixture in vapour phase in equilibrium with a solution of ammonia and water at different temperatures. Figure 16.1 shows the construction of such a chart using which one can obtain the composition of mixture in vapour phase from known values of liquid phase mass fraction (L) and saturated temperature of pure ammonia or pressure.

Refrigerants In the vapour compression refrigeration system, the working fluid undergoes a phase change during the cycle. There are a few other requirements. The first requirement is that the pressure at which the refrigerant enters the compressor should be slightly higher than the atmospheric pressure to make sure that no air leaks in. It is also necessary that the boiling point of the refrigerant should be lower then the temperature at which the evaporator is to be maintained. The refrigerant is compressed to a pressure of approximately 1 MPa where its saturation temperature is greater than the surrounding temperature so that energy can be rejected to the surroundings. During the energy rejection process the refrigerant undergoes a phase change from vapour to liquid. Hence the refrigerant's critical pressure should be high. The refrigerant should be non-toxic and non flammable. In view of this the commonly used refrigerant are Ammonia and Freons. Generally Freons are methane-based hydrocarbons where hydrogen atoms are replaced by chlorine or fluorine atoms. These are denoted by a

number of two digits, where the first digit minus one is the number of hydrogen atoms and the second digit indicates the number of fluorine atoms, while the other atoms are chlorine. dichloro difluoro methane monochloro difluorp methane

Absorption Refrigeration System

The vapour absorption system is shown in Figure 31.4.

Figure 31.4 In the absorption refrigeration system, refrigeration effect is produced mainly by the use of energy as heat. In such a system, the refrigerant is usually dissolved in a liquid. A concentrated solution of ammonia is boiled in a vapour generator producing ammonia vapour at high pressure. The high pressure ammonia vapour is fed to a condenser where it is condensed to liquid ammonia by rejecting energy as heat to the surroundings. Then, the liquid ammonia is throttled through a valve to a low pressure. During throttling, ammonia is partially vapourized and its temperature decreases. This low temperature ammonia is fed to an evaporator where it is vapourized removing energy from the evaporator. Then this low-pressure ammonia vapour is absorbed in the weak solution of ammonia. The resulting strong ammonia solution is pumped back to the vapour generator and the

cycle is completed. The COP of the absorption system can be evaluated by considering it as a combination of a heat pump and a heat engine (Figure 31.5).

Figure 31.5 Heat Engine (31.7 ) Heat Pump (31.8 ) or (31.9 ) now, (31.10 ) or, (31.11 )

Gas Refrigeration Cycle: In this refrigeration system the working fluid is Air. The system is used for aircraft cabin cooling. The working of a gas refrigeration cycle is shown in Figures 31.6 (a) and (b).

Figures 31.6 (a) and (b) The atmospheric air at state 1 is compressed isentropically to state 2. The compressed air is cooled at constant pressure to state 3 by exchanging heat with the surroundings. Then the air is expanded isentropically to state 4. Because of adiabatic expansion, the temperature of the gas is reduced. The cooled air takes up heat from the cabin to reach state 1. The work obtained during the expansion process can be utilized to run the compressor The compressor work: (31.12 ) The expander work: (31.13 ) The net work required: (31.14 )

What is the work required to be supplied (31.15 ) or

With the type of chiller selected, the next step was to determine the operating pressures of the condenser and evaporator. According to the 2006 Ontario Building Code, the ambient design temperature in Southern Ontario is between 29 and 31oC [9]. As such, the condenser temperature was selected at 40oC to ensure sufficient heat rejection to the atmosphere from the condenser, where the working fluid is pure ammonia. The Enthalpy-Concentration Diagram for Ammonia-Water in Appendix C [10] determined that the condenser pressure should be 1300kPa. On the evaporator side, since ammonia is not allowed within residential spaces in any concentration, a chilled glycol-water line (glycol prevents freezing and the necessity of draining the system in winter) was used to transfer heat from the home to the evaporator. The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute requires that that chillers supply air handlers with 7.2oC water [11], which allows the evaporator temperature to be selected at 2.5oC for adequate heat transfer from the chilled glycol-water loop to the evaporator. This results in an evaporator pressure of 150kPa. Before the mass flow rates and energy exchanges were determined, the states were identified using the ammonia-water enthalpy-concentration

diagram.

Below is a list of the states that were easily determined from the discussion in

Chapter 1 and the use of the enthalpy-concentration diagram. State 2: Saturated Vapour at 1300kPa and 100% Ammonia State 3: Saturated Liquid at 1300kPa and 100% Water State 4: Saturated Liquid at 1300kPa and 100% Ammonia State 5: Mixture of Liquid and Vapour at 150kPa and h5=h4 State 6: Saturated Vapour at 150kPa and 100% Ammonia The properties of these states are shown later in this section in Table 3.2.1. Since the chiller capacity was known, 2.5 tons in this case, the mass flow rate of refrigerant at State 6 was determined using an energy balance on the evaporator.

Exhaust gases from the cogeneration unit give up some of their energy in the generator. Since exhaust gases are typically in excess of 200oC, the chiller has been designed with a range of generator temperatures, from 130 to 170oC, to determine which TGen gave the greatest COP. Therefore, knowing TGen and the generator pressure, States 1 and 9 were determined where 1 and 9 are saturated vapour and liquid, respectively. For the absorber to reject heat to the atmosphere, it must be at a higher temperature. As mentioned above, the ambient design temperature is between 29 and 31oC for Southern Ontario, so TAbs was selected at 40oC to maintain consistency. Similar to the generator, State 7 was determined since it was known to be a saturated liquid. Following from State 7, State 8 was solved with the knowledge of the following:

Referring to the specific volume table in Appendix D, the specific volume at State 7 is 0.00114m3/kg. and vapour. To solve for the mass flow rates in the system, fluid mass and ammonia mass balances were conducted on the rectifier and the absorber. Both produced a system of two equations with two unknowns. The rectifier was straight-forward, but solving for the absorber was more complex. To do this, it had to be recognized that the fluid mass flow rate at State 9 equals the fluid mass flow rate at State 10 and the ammonia mass flow rates are equal at each state as well. The final step involved balancing the energy within the heat exchanger to resolve the remaining states. Since none of the fluid properties of States 11 or 12 could be determined from the enthalpy-concentration diagram, an approximation was made. To ensure sufficient energy transfer in the heat exchanger, the temperature of State 12 was assumed to be 45oC. Therefore, the enthalpy at State 12 was approximated as: Therefore, the enthalpy at State 8 was found for this mixture of liquid

From the data presented in Cengel and Boles text (Appendix E), the Cp of an ammonia-water solution was found using a weighted average of the Cp of water and ammonia at 45oC since the fractions were known [8]. surroundings. To determine the COP of the absorption chiller, the energy input into the generator and the pump was calculated. For example, the energy transferred out of the condenser was found using the equation: Lastly, the enthalpy of State 11 was found using an energy balance on the heat exchanger where it was assumed that there was no net heat transfer with the

The COP was calculated as follows:

and is plotted in Figure 3.2.2 versus generator temperature.