Cooling performance of a variable speed CO2 cycle with an electronic expansion valve and internal heat exchanger

The cooling performance of a CO2 cycle must be improved to develop a competitive air-conditioning system with the conventional air-conditioners using HFCs. In this study, the cooling performance of a variable speed CO2 cycle was measured and analyzed by varying the refrigerant charge amount, compressor frequency, EEV opening, and length of an internal heat exchanger (IHX). The basic CO2 system without the IHX showed the maximum cooling COP of 2.1 at the compressor discharge pressure of 9.2 MPa and the optimum normalized charge of 0.282. The cooling COP decreased with the increase of compressor frequency at all normalized charges. The optimum EEV opening increased with compressor frequency. Simultaneous control of EEV opening and compressor frequency allowed optimum control of the compressor discharge pressure. The optimal compressor discharge pressure of the modified CO2 cycle with the IHX was reduced by 0.5 MPa. The IHX increased the cooling capacity and COP of the CO2 cycle by 6.2–11.9% and 7.1–9.1%, respectively, at the tested compressor frequencies from 40 to 60 Hz.