Thermodynamic analysis of an enhanced ejector vapor injection refrigeration cycle for CO2 transcritical operation at low evaporating temperatures

The main drawback associated with CO2 refrigeration systems is related to their performance reduction during transcritical operation at warm climate conditions, which may be compensated by better cycle architectures such as the split-cycle with subcooling or the flash-tank configuration, among others. Specifically, the use of standard gas-ejectors together with parallel compressors provides even better efficiency improvements, not being able to use them with low-temperature evaporators to prevent the triple point inside the ejector. This paper proposes an enhanced cycle with a gas ejector for two-stage compressor architectures with vapor injection from the flash-tank, which is able to operate at low evaporating temperatures and that provides a greater performance improvement the more severe the climate conditions are. The methodology conducted is based on a thermodynamic analysis that includes parametric evaluation and cycle optimization, comparing the results to a conventional CO2 transcritical cycle with flash-tank and dynamic vapor injection architecture. The main results show that a maximum Coefficient of Performance improvement of 17.5% is achievable for transcritical operation at -40°C evaporating temperature. The compressor displacement capacity required with the enhanced cycle is up to 9% lower for the same refrigeration demand, reducing the electrical consumption as well as the compressor expenditure. Moreover, greater vapor injection mass flow rates are obtained by the gas-ejector injection with discharge temperature reductions up to 18%, enhancing the system reliability.