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Study on a heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigerator for low-grade heat recovery

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  • Xu, Jingyuan
  • Luo, Ercang
  • Hochgreb, Simone

Abstract

Recovering low-grade heat from renewable energy sources and waste heat is crucial for improving energy utilizing efficiency as well as reducing CO2 emissions. Conventional thermoacoustically-driven refrigerators have a high onset temperature and low cooling efficiency, which significant limit their capacity for low-grade heat utilization. This paper investigates a novel thermoacoustically-driven refrigerator with gas-liquid resonators which enable a lower onset temperature and better cooling performance for harvesting low-grade heat. Theoretical analyses were performed on multi-stage systems to explore the onset characteristics and steady performance. Onset characteristics analysis was conducted by using a transfer matrix method. The effects of mean pressure, liquid volume ratio and the expected liquid mechanical damping coefficient on the onset temperature difference and working frequency were studied for systems with different numbers of stages. A comparison of system onset performance was made with conventional systems containing a gas-only resonator. The research illustrated that for a mean pressure of 1 MPa, the proposed system can significantly reduce the onset temperature difference from 144.1 K to below 35.5 K. In addition, an analysis was then conducted to study the parametric sensitivity of the thermodynamic performance. Calculation results show that the proposed system can achieve a baseline cooling power of 2.7 kW and a thermal-to-cooling efficiency of 0.67 at a heating temperature of 420 K and a cooling temperature of 270 K. This represents significant increases by a factor of 5.6 in cooling power and 1.5 in efficiency from a gas-only to a gas-liquid resonator.

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  • Xu, Jingyuan & Luo, Ercang & Hochgreb, Simone, 2020. "Study on a heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigerator for low-grade heat recovery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:271:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920306796
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115167
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    Cited by:

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    2. Xiao, Lei & Luo, Kaiqi & Chi, Jiaxin & Chen, Geng & Wu, Zhanghua & Luo, Ercang & Xu, Jingyuan, 2023. "Study on a direct-coupling thermoacoustic refrigerator using time-domain acoustic-electrical analogy method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    3. Mubarak Ismail & Metkel Yebiyo & Issa Chaer, 2021. "A Review of Recent Advances in Emerging Alternative Heating and Cooling Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-24, January.
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    5. Qian, Suxin & Wang, Yao & Xu, Shijie & Chen, Yanliang & Yuan, Lifen & Yu, Jianlin, 2021. "Cascade utilization of low-grade thermal energy by coupled elastocaloric power and cooling cycle," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    6. Hu, Yiwei & Xu, Jingyuan & Zhao, Dan & Yang, Rui & Hu, Jianying & Luo, Ercang, 2024. "Analysis on a single-stage direct-coupled thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by low/medium-grade heat," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    7. Xiao, Lei & Luo, Kaiqi & Hu, Jianying & Jia, Zilong & Chen, Geng & Xu, Jingyuan & Luo, Ercang, 2023. "Transient and steady performance analysis of a free-piston Stirling generator," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    8. Hu, Yiwei & Luo, Kaiqi & Zhao, Dan & Chi, Jiaxin & Chen, Geng & Chen, Yuanhang & Luo, Ercang & Xu, Jingyuan, 2024. "Thermoacoustic micro-CHP system for low-grade thermal energy utilization in residential buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    9. Luo, Kaiqi & Luo, Ercang & Xie, Xiaoyun & Jiang, Yi, 2024. "A highly efficient heat-driven thermoacoustic system for room-temperature refrigeration by using novel configuration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    10. Luo, Jiaqi & Zhou, Qiang & Jin, Tao, 2023. "Theoretical and experimental investigation of acoustic field adjustment of a gas-liquid standing-wave thermoacoustic engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    11. Ding, Zhixiong & Wu, Wei & Huang, Si-Min & Huang, Hongyu & Bai, Yu & He, Zhaohong, 2023. "A novel compression-assisted energy storage heat transformer for low-grade renewable energy utilization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    12. Yang, Rui & Meir, Avishai & Ramon, Guy Z., 2022. "A standing-wave, phase-change thermoacoustic engine: Experiments and model projections," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    13. Wang, Yinglong & Chen, Zhengrun & Shen, Yuanyuan & Ma, Zhaoyuan & Li, Huiyuan & Liu, Xiaobin & Zhu, Zhaoyou & Qi, Jianguang & Cui, Peizhe & Wang, Lei & Ma, Yixin & Xu, Dongmei, 2021. "Advanced exergy and exergoeconomic analysis of an integrated system combining CO2 capture-storage and waste heat utilization processes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    14. Wang, Xin & Xu, Jingyuan & Wu, Zhanghua & Luo, Ercang, 2022. "A thermoacoustic refrigerator with multiple-bypass expansion cooling configuration for natural gas liquefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    15. Xu, Jingyuan & Hu, Jianying & Luo, Ercang & Hu, Jiangfeng & Zhang, Limin & Hochgreb, Simone, 2022. "Numerical study on a heat-driven piston-coupled multi-stage thermoacoustic-Stirling cooler," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    16. Chang, Depeng & Hu, Jianying & Sun, Yanlei & Zhang, Limin & Chen, Yanyan & Luo, Ercang, 2023. "Numerical investigation on key parameters of a double-acting free piston Stirling generator," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PB).
    17. Chen, Geng & Wang, Yufan & Tang, Lihua & Wang, Kai & Yu, Zhibin, 2020. "Large eddy simulation of thermally induced oscillatory flow in a thermoacoustic engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    18. Xu, Jingyuan & Hu, Jianying & Sun, Yanlei & Wang, Huizhi & Wu, Zhanghua & Hu, Jiangfeng & Hochgreb, Simone & Luo, Ercang, 2020. "A cascade-looped thermoacoustic driven cryocooler with different-diameter resonance tubes. Part Ⅱ: Experimental study and comparison," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    19. Xu, Jingyuan & Luo, Ercang & Hochgreb, Simone, 2021. "A thermoacoustic combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system for waste heat and LNG cold energy recovery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).

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