Experimental investigation of a liquid-flooded Ericsson cycle cooler

An experimental test program was conducted on a novel Ericsson cycle heat pump. The concept uses liquid flooding of the compressor and expander to approach isothermal compression and expansion processes. Open drive automotive scrolls were used in the experimental system. Numerous experiments were run at various conditions using nitrogen as the refrigerant and alkyl-benzene oil as the flooding liquid. Cooling capacities of over 670 W and volumetric cooling capacities of more than 110 kJ/m3 were measured. Second law efficiencies of approximately 3% were achieved. Similar to other gas cycles, the cycle performance is very sensitive to the adiabatic efficiencies of the rotating equipment and the performance of the off-the-shelf equipment was not sufficient to achieve high cycle efficiency. In addition, large pressure drops occurred in the system due to the instrumentation used and the long and arduous flow paths. The scroll compressor and expander were found to perform well considering that they were not designed for the operating conditions encountered.