Study on a Quaternary Working Pair of CaCl₂-LiNO₃-KNO₃/H₂O for an Absorption Refrigeration Cycle

Abstract

When compared with LiBr/H2O, an absorption refrigeration cycle using CaCl2/H2O as the working pair needs a lower driving heat source temperature, that is, CaCl2/H2O has a better refrigeration characteristic. However, the crystallization temperature of CaCl2/H2O solution is too high and its absorption ability is not high enough to achieve an evaporation temperature of 5 °C or lower. CaCl2-LiNO3-KNO3(15.5:5:1)/H2O was proposed and its crystallization temperature, saturated vapor pressure, density, viscosity, specific heat capacity, specific entropy, and specific enthalpy were measured to retain the refrigeration characteristic of CaCl2/H2O and solve its problems. Under the same conditions, the generation temperature for an absorption refrigeration cycle with CaCl2-LiNO3-KNO3(15.5:5:1)/H2O was 7.0 °C lower than that with LiBr/H2O. Moreover, the cycle’s COP and exergy efficiency with CaCl2-LiNO3-KNO3(15.5:5:1)/H2O were approximately 0.04 and 0.06 higher than those with LiBr/H2O, respectively. The corrosion rates of carbon steel and copper for the proposed working pair were 14.31 μm∙y−1 and 2.04 μm∙y−1 at 80 °C and pH 9.7, respectively, which were low enough for engineering applications.

Keywords

• absorption refrigeration
• working pair
• crystallization temperature
• vapor pressure
• COP
• corrosivity