Development of a Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Material-Based Refrigeration System

The present research focuses on application of thermal energy storage on a convectional refrigerator to enhance its performance. Salt hydrate was used as latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) material to convert the convectional refrigerator to a LHTES material-based refrigerator. The cabinet of the convectional refrigerator was loaded with 10 kg of water at a temperature of 28 degrees C and experiments were conducted on it to know the time taken for the evaporator temperature (T-E) to reach -5 degrees C, and determine the performance characteristics of the convectional refrigerator. The experiments were repeated on the LHTES material-based refrigerator to compare its performance characteristics with those of the convectional refrigerator. The results reveal that the evaporator of the LHTES material-based refrigerator attains the temperature of -5 degrees C forty minutes before the same temperature (-5 degrees C) was attained in the evaporator of the convectional refrigerator. For the interval of evaporator temperature (-5 degrees C <= T-E <= -1 degrees C) considered for evaluation of the performance characteristics of the refrigerators in this work, when T-E drops from 1 degrees C to 5 degrees C, the coefficient of performance (COP) for the LHTES material-based refrigerator and convectional refrigerator decreases from 7.36 to 4.62 and 6.44 to 4.15, respectively; the refrigerating effect decreases from 118.41 kJ/kg to 111.80 kJ/kg and 113.37 kJ/kg to 106.69 kJ/kg, respectively; the compressor work increases from 15.10 kJ/kg to 23.18 kJ/kg and 17.60 kJ/kg to 25.68 kJ/kg, respectively. The higher value of the COP and refrigerating effect, and the lower value of the compressor work of the LHTES material-based refrigerator compared with those of the convectional refrigerator imply that there is an improvement in the performance of the refrigerator with the LHTES material. The current work broadens research on the use of a LHTES materials to enhance the performance of a refrigerator.