JJMIE
Volume 14, Number 2, June. 2020
ISSN 1995-6665
Pages 183 - 193
Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Simulation and Performance Evaluation of CO
2
Booster System
Integrated with Modified Evaporative Cooling for Supermarket
Application in India
Manju Lata, Rishabh Yadav, Dileep Kumar Gupta
*
Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research And Management (IITRAM) Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Received December 7 2019 Accepted April 25 2020
Abstract
CO2 is one of the rediscovered, ecologically safe refrigerants with very low global warming potential which has favorable
thermo-physical properties. The CO2 booster refrigeration system has already been identified as a suitable choice for the
supermarket application to replace the conventional R404A (high GWP) system. However, the performance of the CO2 booster
system is still comparatively lower than the conventional R404A system, especially when operated at high ambient temperature,
which compels to improve the performance of the CO2 system with suitable modification. In the present work, an attempt has
been made to examine the year-round performance of the basic booster system and basic booster system with the integrated
modified evaporative cooling system for Ahmedabad city weather conditions (Hot and Dry climate region). The experimentally
investigated and validated data are used for the modified evaporative cooling system with real-time weather data taken from
the weather station installed in the institute. Subsequently, the performance of the BBS, BBS-MEC, and R404A systems have
been compared in terms of COP, power consumption, and seasonal energy efficiency ratio. The results show that for BBS-
MEC, SEER enhances by 28.66% and annual power consumption decreases by 22.89% as compared with BBS. In addition to
that, the total environment warming impact is also found significantly lower in the case of the BBS-MEC system.
© 2020 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved
Keywords: CO2 refrigeration, booster system, evaporative cooling, R744, natural refrigerator, supermarket;
1. Introduction
Supermarket installations are continuously increasing
worldwide, which lead to an increase in the use of R404A
as a refrigerant for the supermarket. The refrigerant leakage
rate predicted using this refrigerant ranges from 3% to 35%
[1], which contributes to direct global warming due to high
GWP. Subsequently, the power consumption of the system
contributes to increasing global warming indirectly. Several
alternative low GWP refrigerants, viz. CO2, R600a, R32,
NH4, R290, and R1234yf, etc. have been proposed to
reduce the direct contribution of global warming. However,
except CO2, afore said refrigerants are either toxic and/or
flammable. As a natural refrigerant with excellent thermo-
physical and heat transfer characteristics, CO2 has been
recognized as an encouraging substitute [2]. Further, safety
features i.e. non-flammability and non-toxicity in nature
make CO2 an attractive replacement of the conventional
refrigerants. CO2 has already been effectively
commercialized in low-temperature climate regions,
however, using in high-temperature climate regions, is still
a challenge due to poor system performance at high ambient
temperature [3].The lower critical temperature of CO2i.e.
31.1oC makes the CO2 cycle trans-critical, consequently,
the CO2 system performs vulnerably at high-temperature
climates. Several studies have been carried out on the use of
CO2 as a refrigerant for supermarket applications in
different ambient conditions, some of the recent
developments are summarized below, The water spray
technique was used for reducing gas cooler outlet
temperature when operated at high ambient temperatures
[4]. The yearly energy savings were limited to 3-5% and
stated that saving is significant due to the high cost of
electricity in peak summer periods. A theoretical
investigation was done on two main trans-critical CO2
systems centralized with an accumulation tank at the
medium temperature and parallel with two separate circuits
for low and medium temperature [5]. The performance of
the centralized system with two-stage compression was
found better in ambient temperature range 10-
40ºC.Theoretical analysis is done of the trans-critical
booster system for supermarket applications [6].The
possible parameters were identified which affect the
performance of the system at high ambient temperature. It
was concluded that high side pressure, is highly dependent
on compressor efficiency, ambient temperature, and suction
line heat exchanger.
Comparison is done for different configurations of the
CO2 system with the baseline R404A direct expansion
system using bin analyses in the eight climate zones of the
* Corresponding author e-mail: dileep.vnit@gmail.com.