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LIQUEFACTION
Lilik Suprianti, ST, MSc
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is best known for its use in the air conditioning of buildings and in the
treatment, transportation, and preservation of foods and beverages. It also finds large-
scale industrial application, for example, in the manufacture of ice and the dehydration
of gases. Applications in the petroleum industry include lubricating-oil purification, low-
temperature reactions, and separation of volatile hydrocarbons.
■ The word refrigeration implies the maintenance of a temperature below that of the
surroundings.
■ The vapor formed may be returned to its original liquid state for re evaporation in
either of two ways.
■ Basically, a refrigeration cycle is a reversed heat-engine cycle. Heat is transferred from a low
temperature level to a higher one; according to the second law, this requires an external source of
energy.
■ The ideal refrigerator, like the ideal heat engine (Sec. 5.2), operates on a Carnot cycle, consisting in
this case of two isothermal steps in which heat Qc is absorbed at the lower temperature Tc and
heat QH is rejected at the higher temperature TH, and two adiabatic steps
■ The cycle requires the addition of net work W to the system. Since AU of the working fluid is zero for
the cycle, the first law is written:
𝑊 = 𝑄𝐻 − 𝑄𝑐 (9.1)
The measure of the effectiveness of a refrigerator is its coefficient of performance 𝜔
𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝑸𝒄
𝝎= = (9.2)
𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝑾
Equation (9.1) may be divided by 𝑄𝑐
𝑊 𝑄𝐻
= −1
𝑄𝑐 𝑄𝑐
Combination with eh 5.7
𝑊 𝑇𝐻 𝑇𝐻 − 𝑇𝑐
= −1=
𝑄𝑐 𝑇𝑐 𝑇𝑐
Eq. 9.2 become
𝑇𝑐
𝜔= (9.3)
𝑇𝐻 −𝑇𝑐
This equation applies only to a refrigerator operating on a Carnot cycle, and it gives the
maximum possible value of w for any refrigerator operating between given values of TH andTc
THE IDEAL VAPOR-COMPRESSION REFRIGERATION
CYCLE
■ The vapor-compression refrigeration cycle is the ideal model for refrigeration systems.
Unlike the reversed Carnot cycle, the refrigerant is vaporized completely before it is
compressed and the turbine is replaced with a throttling device.
𝑄𝑐 = 𝐻2 − 𝐻1
𝑄𝐻 = 𝐻3 − 𝐻4
These equations follow from Eq. (2.32) when the small changes in potential and kinetic energy
are neglected. The work of compression is simply:
𝑊 = 𝐻3 − 𝐻2
■ and by Eq. (9.2), the coefficient of performance is:
𝐻2 −𝐻1
𝜔= (9.4)
𝐻3 −𝐻2
■ To design the evaporator, compressor, condenser, and auxiliary equipment one must know the
rate of circulation of refrigerant m. This is determined from the rate of heat absorption in the
evaporator by the equation:
𝑄𝑐
𝑚ሶ = (9.5)
𝐻2 −𝐻1
■ Liquefaction results when a gas is cooled to a temperature in the two-phase region. This may
be accomplished in several ways:
3. By a throttling process.
Many important scientific and engineering processes at cryogenic temperatures (below about 100°C) depend
on liquefied gases including the separation of oxygen and nitrogen from air, preparation of liquid propellants
for rockets, the study of material properties at low temperatures, and the study of superconductivity.