Heat driven refrigeration cycle at low temperatures

Absorption refrigeration cycle can be driven by low-grade thermal energy, such as solar energy, geothermal energy and waste heat. It is beneficial to save energy and protect environment. However, the applications of traditional absorption refrigeration cycle are greatly restricted because they cannot achieve low refrigeration temperature. A new absorption refrigeration cycle is investigated in this paper, which is driven by low-grade energy and can get deep low refrigeration temperature. The mixture refrigerant R23+R134a and an absorbent DMF are used as its working fluid. The theoretical results indicate that the new cycle can achieve -62℃ refrigeration temperature when the generation temperature is only 160℃. This refrigeration temperature is much lower than that obtained by traditional absorption refrigeration cycle. Refrigeration temperature of -47.3℃ has been successfully achieved by experiment for this new cycle at the generation temperature of 157℃, which is the lowest temperature obtained by absorption refrigeration system reported in the literature up to now. The theoretical and experimental results prove that new cycle can achieve rather low refrigeration temperature.