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12 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Condenser

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Generator
Expansion
valve Qg
Heat

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exchanger

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Absorber

Evaporator
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Pump
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Figure 1.4 Schematic diagram of a basic vapour absorption refrigeration system.
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1.3.6 Solar Energy Based Refrigeration Systems

Attempts have been made to run refrigeration systems by solar energy using concentrating and flat
plate solar collectors. This work started in several countries around 1950s. In 1953, a solar system
using a parabolic mirror type concentrating solar collector of 10 m2 area could produce 250 kg/day
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ice in Tashkent USSR. F. Trombe installed an absorption machine with a cylindro-parabolic mirror
of 20 m2 at Montlouis France to produce 100 kg of ice per day. Energy crisis gave some impetus
to research on solar refrigeration systems. LiBr–water based systems have been developed for air-
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conditioning purpose since these do not require a large temperature difference. University of
Queensland, Australia was the first to install a solar air conditioning system in 1966. After that,
many systems have been successfully used all over the world. There were 500 solar absorption
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systems in the USA alone.

Solar energy based intermittent adsorption system is another success story. These systems
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too, do not require a compressor. These systems use an adsorbent and a refrigerant. The solar
collector has a bed, which contains the adsorbent. The refrigerant vapour is driven by the adsorption
potential of the adsorbent when nocturnal cooling cools the collector. At night-time the refrigerant
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evaporates giving refrigeration and is adsorbed in activated charcoal or zeolite, and during daytime
the refrigerant is driven off by solar energy, condensed and stored in a reservoir for night-time use.
Efficiency is rather poor requiring a large collector area but these systems find applications in
remote areas where electricity is not available. These systems use sodium thiocynate, activated
charcoal, and zeolite as adsorbents, and the ammonia, alcohols or fluorocarbons as refrigerants.
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History of Refrigeration 13

1.3.7 Gas Cycle Refrigeration

If air at high pressure expands and does work to move the piston or rotate a turbine, its temperature
will decrease. This was known as early as 18th century. Dalton and Gay Lusac studied it in 1807.
Sadi Carnot mentioned it in 1824. Dr. John Gorrie, a physician in Florida, developed one such
machine in 1844 to produce ice for the relief of his patients suffering from fever. This machine
used compressed air at two atmosphere and produced brine at –7oC which produced ice. Alexander

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Carnegie Kirk in 1862 made an air cycle cooling machine, which worked on the reverse Stirling
cycle. This machine used steam engine to run its compressor. In fact, Phillips air liquifier is based
on this principle. Paul Giffard in 1875, perfected the open type of machine. This machine was
further improved by T.B. Lightfoot, A. Haslam, Henery Bell and by James Coleman. This was the
main method of marine refrigeration for quite some time. Frank Allen in New York, developed a

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closed cycle machine employing high pressures to reduce the volume flow rates. This was named
dense air machine. These days air cycle refrigeration is used only in aircraft whose small turbo

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compressor can handle large volume flow rates. The schematic diagram of an open type air cycle
refrigeration system is shown in Figure 1.5. A compressor draws air from a cold chamber and
compresses it. The hot and high pressure air from the compressor rejects heat to the heat sink

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(cooling water) in the heat exchanger. The warm but high pressure air expands in the expander,
where it is cooled. The cold air is sent to the cold chamber for refrigeration. The compressor and
the turbine (expander) are mounted on the same shaft so that the compressor uses the power output
of the turbine.
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Cooling water
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Heat exchanger
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Expander
Compressor
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Cold chamber

Figure 1.5 Schematic diagram of an open-type air cycle refrigeration system.

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14 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

1.3.8 Steam Jet Refrigeration System

This system produces cooling by flashing of water, that is, by spraying water into a chamber
where a low pressure is maintained. A part of the sprayed water evaporates at low pressure and
cools the remaining water to its saturation temperature at the pressure in the chamber. Obviously,
lower temperature will require lower pressure but temperature lower than 4oC cannot be obtained
with water since water freezes at 0oC. Essentially, it is an evaporative cooling process. In an

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absorption refrigeration system, the strong absorption potential between H2SO4–H2O or LiBr–
H2O was used to draw water vapour. In this system, high velocity steam is used for this purpose.
High-pressure motive steam passes through either a convergent or a convergent-divergent nozzle
where it acquires either sonic or supersonic velocity and low pressure of the order of 0.009 kPa
corresponding to an evaporator temperature of 4oC. A stream or jet moving with high velocity

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imparts its kinetic energy to the surrounding fluid, that is, it entrains it or causes it to move along
with it. The high velocity steam because of its high momentum entrains or carries along with it the

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water vapour evaporating from the flash chamber. Because of its high velocity it moves the vapours
against the increasing pressure gradient up to the condenser where the pressure is 5.6–7.4 kPa
corresponding to the condenser temperature of 35–45oC. Both the motive steam and the evaporated

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vapour are condensed and recycled as shown in Figure 1.6. Maurice Leblanc developed this system
in Paris around 1910. This system requires a good vacuum to be maintained. Sometimes, a booster
ejector is used for this purpose. This system is also driven by low-grade energy, that is, by process
steam in chemical plants or a boiler. This is not an economical process, and hence it has been
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replaced by steam-driven LiBr systems in most places.

To air pump
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Condenser

Nozzle
Ejector
Motive
steam Cooling
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Diffuser water
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Chilled
water return
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Make-up
water
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To boiler
Pump
feed pump
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Chilled water flow

Figure 1.6 Schematic diagram of a steam jet refrigeration system.

A patent for the compression of steam by means of a jet of motive steam was granted in 1838
to the Frenchman Pelletan. The credit for constructing the steam jet refrigeration system goes to
the French engineer, Maurice Leblanc, who developed the system in 1907–08. In this system,
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History of Refrigeration 15

ejectors were used to produce a high velocity steam jet (ª 1200 m/s). The first commercial system
was made by Westinghouse in 1909 in Paris based on Leblanc’s design. Even though the efficiency
of the steam jet refrigeration system was low, it was still attractive as water is harmless and the
system could be run using exhaust steam from a steam engine. From 1910 onwards, steam jet
refrigeration systems were used mainly in breweries, chemical factories, warships, etc. In 1926,
the French engineer Follain improved the machine by introducing multiple stages of vaporization

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and condensation of the suction steam. Between 1928–1930, there was much interest in this type
of systems in the USA where they were mainly used for air conditioning of factories, cinema
theatres, ships and even railway wagons. Several companies such as Westinghouse, Ingersoll Rand
and Carrier started commercial production of these systems from 1930 onwards. However, gradually,
these systems started getting replaced by more efficient vapour absorption systems using LiBr–

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water. Nonetheless, some East European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Russia continued
to manufacture these systems as late as 1960s. The ejector principle can also be used to provide
refrigeration using fluids other than water, i.e. refrigerants such as CFC11, CFC21, CFC22, CFC113,

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CFC114, etc. The credit for first developing (around 1955) these closed vapour jet refrigeration
systems goes to the Russian engineer, I.S. Badylkes. Using refrigerants other than water, it is
possible to achieve temperatures as low as –100oC with a single stage of compression. The

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advantages cited for this type of systems are simplicity and robustness, while difficult design and
economics are its chief disadvantages. This type of system is still used for vacuum cooling of
foodstuff where the water from the foodstuff evaporates, absorbing its latent heat from it and
cooling it. Forester (1954) and Vahl (1966) give more details of the steam jet refrigeration system.
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1.3.9 Thermoelectric and Magnetic Refrigeration Systems
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In 1821, a German scientist T.J. Seebeck reported that when two junctions of dissimilar metals are
kept at two different temperatures, an emf is developed which results in flow of current. The emf
is proportional to temperature difference. In 1934, a Frenchman, Jean Peltier observed the reverse
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effect, that is, thermal effect of cooling and heating of two junctions of dissimilar materials when
direct current is passed through them, the heat transfer rate being proportional to the current. In
1857, William Thomson ( Lord Kelvin) proved by thermodynamic analysis that Seebeck effect
and Peltier effect are related and he discovered another effect, that is now called Thomson effect
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after his name. According to this, when current flows through a conductor of a thermocouple that
has an initial temperature gradient in it, then the heat transfer rate per unit length is proportional to
the product of the current and the temperature.
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As the current flows through a thermoelectric material, it gets heated due to its electrical
resistance. This is called the Joulean effect. Further, heat is transferred by conduction heat transfer
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from the hot junction to the cold junction. Both these heat transfer rates have to be compensated by
the Peltier effect if some cooling is to be produced.
Insulating materials give poor thermoelectric performance because of their small electrical
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conductivity, as a result the Joulean effect masks the Peltier effect. On the other hand, metals fail
because of their large thermal conductivity where the conduction heat transfer masks the
thermoelectric effect. Hence for a long time the thermoelectric cooling remained a laboratory
curiosity. The best thermoelectric effects are obtained with semiconductors. A pile of junctions is
used in actual practice with the cold junction kept indoors to absorb heat and the warm junction
kept outside to reject heat.
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16 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Lenz is said to be the first person to have made a small amount of ice by this method by using
antimony and bismuth in 1838. This experiment could not be repeated. It has now been established
that it was because of impurities in bismuth and antimony, which acted like semiconductors and
the thermoelectric effect could be observed. This method had to wait for the semiconductors to be
developed in 1949–1950. Most of the work has been done in Russia by A. F. Ioffe (1957). Several
domestic refrigerators based on thermoelectric effect were made in USSR as early as 1949. However,

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since 1960s these systems are mainly used for storing medicines, vaccines, etc and in electronic
cooling. Developments also took place in many other countries. In the USA, domestic refrigerators,
air conditioners, water coolers, air conditioned diving suits, etc. were made using these effects.
System capacities were typically small due to poor efficiency. However, some large refrigeration
capacity systems such as a 3000 kcal/h air conditioner and a 6 tonne capacity cold storage were

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also developed. By using multistaging, temperatures as low as –145oC were obtained. These systems
due to their limited performance (limited by the materials) are now used only in certain niche
applications such as electronic cooling, mobile coolers, etc. Efforts have also been made to club

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thermoelectric systems with photovoltaic cells with a view to developing solar thermoelectric
refrigerators.
According to ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals (1967), materials used for thermoelectric

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cooling include alloys of bismuth, tellurium, and antimony for p-type elements, and alloys of
bismuth, tellurium and selenium for n-type elements.
The thermoelectric method is used only for small refrigeration systems since its efficiency is
low and a large value of direct current is required. Further development of this system requires
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better materials. Temperatures very near the absolute zero may be obtained by adiabatic
demagnetization of certain paramagnetic salts. Each atom of the paramagnetic salt may be considered
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to be a tiny magnet. Normally the atoms or the magnets are randomly oriented such that the net
magnetic force is zero. If exposed to a strong magnetic field, the atoms will align themselves to the
direction of the magnetic field. Now if the magnetic field is suddenly removed, the atoms will
come back to their original random orientation. This requires work to be done at the expense of the
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internal energy. Consequently the salt will be cooled.

1.3.10 Vortex Tube

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George Ranque (1931) based upon his observation of low temperature in cyclone separators devised
a “vortex tube” to yield low temperature air. Air at high pressure was fed to it tangentially at one
end, creating a vortex with low velocity near the core and high velocity at the periphery. A valve
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was provided at the opposite end of the tube to create some back pressure. In counterflow
arrangement an outlet was provided near the core of the tube at the inlet end. If the kinetic energy
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can be removed from the stream, its temperature will decrease just like what happens in a turbine.
Vortex tube is a device that separates the stream into two parts, a high kinetic energy stream and a
low kinetic energy stream. The low kinetic energy stream is removed from one end and the high
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kinetic energy stream moves to the other end. During the passage of the stream to the long end, the
wall friction and the dissipation of kinetic energy raise its temperature further. Hence a warm
stream comes out from the long end.
The tube can be arranged such that both the cold and warm streams come out from the same
end. Hilsch (1946) studied the vortex tube further and recommended optimum dimensions for its
performance. Since then many improvements have been reported.
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History of Refrigeration 17

REFERENCES
Anderson, O.E. (1953): Refrigeration in America : A History of a New Technology and Its Impact.
Princeton University Press.
Beazley, E. (1977): Technology of Beautiful Simplicity: Iranian Icehouses, Country Life, 162,
1229–31.

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Bramwell, F. (1882): Ice making, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 30, December 8, 76–77.
Raol Pictet’s sulphurous acid ice machine (1878), Nature (London), 30 March, 432–434.
Cummings, R.O. (1949): The American Ice Harvests: A Historical Study in Technology,
1800–1918, University of California Press, Berkeley.

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Downing, R. (1984): Developments of Chlorofluorocarbon Refrigerants, ASHRAE Transactions,
vol. 90, Pt. 2, 481–491.

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Forester, L.L. (1954): Steam Jet Refrigeration, Proc. Institution of Refrigeration, 59, 119–152.
Gosney, W.B. (1982): Principles of Refrigeration, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Harrison, James (1857): British Patent 747, Producing cold by the evaporation of volatile liquid
in vacuo.
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Hilsch, R. (1946): Die Enpansia von Gasen, in Zentrifugalfeld als Kalteprozess Z.f., Naturfarchung,
1, 208–14.
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Ioffe, A.F. (1957): Semiconductor Thermoelements and Thermoelectric Cooling , Infosearch,
London.
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Midgley,T. Jr. and Henne, A.L. (1930): Organic fluorides as refrigerants, Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry, 22, p. 542
Midgley,T. Jr. (1937): From the Periodic Table to Production, Industrial and Engineering.
Chemistry, 29, 241–244.
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Oldham B.C. (1947): Evolution of machine and plant design, Proc. Institution of Refrigeration,
43, 59–82.
Perkins Jacob (1834): British Patent 6662, Improvements in the apparatus and means for producing
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ice and cooling fluids.

Ranque, G.J. (1933): Experimences sur la détente giratoire avec production simultance d’un
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echappement d’air chaud et d’un echappement d’air frod, J. de Physique (et Le Rachum) 7,
no. 4, 112–118.
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Vahl, L. (1966): Dampfstrahl – Kaltemaschinen, In Handbuch der Kaltetenik. Ed., R. Plank, vol. 5,
393–432. Springer-Verlag, Berli.
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REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How was natural ice made in ancient India?
2. The thermal conductivity of compacted hay is 0.2 W/m-K, the stratosphere and
air temperatures are –55oC and 25°C respectively, convective heat transfer coefficient
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18 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

for still air is 5.0 W/m2-K and the thickness of compacted hay used for natural ice
manufacture is 0.3 m. Show that the net heat transfer from water at 0oC is 26.527 W/m2 if
the emmissivity of water is taken as 0.9. Neglect the thermal conduction resistance of the
earthen pot.
3. Suppose (a) the convective heat transfer coefficient in Question 2 increases to 10.0 W/m2-K
due to wind velocity and (b) the tray does not see the sky fully (as a result its shape factor

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with respect to sky is 0.5) and the temperature of surrounding objects is 25oC, then in both
the cases find the heat transfer rates and predict if the ice can be made.
4. The convective heat transfer coefficient and the mass transfer coefficient are 10 W/m2-K
and 0.01 kg/m2-s respectively. The humidity ratio of air at 35oC, 40% relative humidity is
0.014 kgw/kga and the humidity ratio of saturated air is 0.020107. The latent heat of water

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at 25oC is 2442.5 J/kg. Neglecting radiation, show that the net heat transfer rate from a
wetted earthen pot will be 6.18 W/m2.

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5. What is the difference between boiling and evaporation? How does water evaporate from a
wetted surface at room temperature?
6. Explain the principle of evaporative cooling and its limitations.
7.
8.
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Explain the principle of cooling by dissolving salts in water.
Evaporation of a refrigerant produces cooling, then why is condensation required and how
is it done?
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9. Why are two pressures required in a vapour compression refrigeration system?
10. What was the refrigerant used in Perkins hand-operated refrigeration machine?
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11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of SO2 as a refrigerant?

12. Why did Thomas Midgley land up with the choice of chlorofluorocarbons as refrigerants?
13. What was the process used by Thomas Midgley to make CCl2F2?
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14. What were the main applications of R500 and R502?

15. Who gave the ozone depletion hypothesis?
16. What are the advantages of the absorption refrigeration system?
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17. What is the principle of steam jet refrigeration system? Why is the motive steam required—
for condensation or for entrainment?
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18. Why is gas cycle refrigeration not very common and where does it find applications?
19. Why are semiconductors used in thermoelectric refrigeration?
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20. What is the principle used to approach absolute zero temperature?

21. What is the principle of operation of vortex tube?
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