Analysis of organic Rankine cycle integrated multi evaporator vapor-compression refrigeration (ORC-mVCR) system

In this study, a multi evaporator vapor-compression refrigeration (mVCR) system driven by Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is proposed as a refrigeration system for supermarkets, restaurants, etc. The system is analyzed for its thermodynamic performance in terms of coefficient of performance (COPs) and exergetic efficiency (ηex). A zeotropic mixture of hexane and R245fa is used as working fluid over pure fluid to assess its impact on the thermodynamic performance of the system. Moreover, the system is optimized using an evolutionary algorithm called genetic algorithm (GA) to determine the optimal values of the operating parameters for the maximum exergetic efficiency of the system. The results indicate that COPs and ηex are maximum at the mass fraction of 0.5 of the zeotropic mixture. The maximum values of COPs and ηex are 0.425 and 31.1% respectively. The system can achieve an exergetic efficiency of 58% at the optimal set of operating parameters. The corresponding optimal values of the temperature of the ORC evaporator, VCR evaporator 1, VCR evaporator 2, and the condenser are 388 K, 268 K, 268 K, and 303 K respectively.