THERMOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF A CASCADE REFRIGERATION SYSTEM USING R744, EJECTOR AND SOLAR ENERGY
refrigeration, ejector, refrigerant, energy
Supermarkets have the characteristics of consuming large amounts of energy, mainly associated with refrigeration systems, which in turn use refrigerants that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Thus, the use of a cascade refrigeration system with ejector (SRCE) and solar energy is addressed in this study, with the objective of evaluating the reduction of energy consumption and environmental impact through thermoeconomic and environmental analyses. When implementing this system, the selection of refrigerants was a determining point for the analyses, whose selection was based on thermodynamic and environmental properties, from which a comparison is made with a traditional fluid, quite present in the literature. Modeling was performed using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software and included mass, energy, entropy and exergy balances for all system components. With the use of the ejector in the SRCE under study, it is expected to reduce part of the irreversibilities caused by the throttling process in the expansion device and thereby also reduce the power required by the compressor and increase the coefficient of performance (COP) of the system.