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DOE OSTI2024

Development and Testing of an Advanced Cascaded Thermoelectric Residential Heat Pump

Electricity-driven heat pumps using vapor compression cycle are an energy-efficient solution to replace fossil fuel burning and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for space heating in residential buildings. However, heating capacity and Coefficient of Performance (COP) of heat pumps degrade significantly with increasing temperature difference between ambient and indoor environments. Residents and building owners are hence reluctant to fully embrace electric heat pumps. The use of conventional all-electric heat pumps also causes concern for electric utilities due to an increased winter peak demand arising from the use of supplemental electric resistance heaters. Our research is an attempt to alleviate these concerns by designing and laboratory testing a thermoelectric (TE) heat pump cascaded with a vapor compression cycle to enhance heating capacity and COP. TE modules increase the subcooling in the refrigerant liquid of the vapor compression cycle to enlarge the evaporating capacity and works at an efficiency greater than a conventional electric resistance strip. This results in a simple, affordable, efficient and highly controllable solution to adequately meet space heating needs in dwellings. The laboratory testing of the 3-stage cascaded TE heat pump performed in this research has exhibited a higher heating capacity by above 15%, while maintaining a heating COP of 2.0-3.6 in the ambient temperature range of -18˚C to 8˚C (0˚F to 47 ˚F), which represents more than 60% of winter temperatures observed in US. If successfully commercialized, this technology can advance space-heating electrification by overcoming consumer cost barrier of heat pumps.

Shen, Bo↗

DOE OSTI2022

Low-GWP Refrigerants Status and Outlook

Refrigeration - including air conditioning (AC) – contributes substantially to the modern life of the 21st century and its economy. The food cold chain, air conditioning, healthcare and energy are examples of sectors for which refrigeration is indispensable. About 5 billion refrigeration systems – of different types and sizes– operate worldwide in different applications [1]. The dominant share of equipment providing refrigeration operate on the vapor-compression-cycle principle and use fluorocarbon refrigerants. Concerns about the environmental safety have become the driving force for refrigerant changes within the last 35 years. The phased-out schedule of stratospheric-ozone-depleting fluids was first formulated by the Montreal Protocol (MP) in 1987 and was made more stringent during the follow-up international meetings [2]. The affected chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants were largely replaced by hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).The 2016 Kigali Amendment to the MP [3] responses to the concerns about the Earth climate change. The refrigeration and AC sectors are attributed with about 7.8 % of global greenhouse gas emissions [4]. This contribution comes in the form of direct effect, which is related to refrigerant emissions from refrigeration systems (37 %), and in the form of indirect effect, which is related to CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plants producing electricity to power refrigeration systems (63 %) [4]. The Kigali Amendment aims at reducing the direct effect. The effect a given molecule has on the climate change is quantified in a simplified manner by its Global Warming Potential (GWP), a relative index referencing the effect produced to that of the same mass of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere. By definition, GWP of carbon dioxide is equal to one.While HFC refrigerants have on average a lower GWP than the CFCs and HCFCs they replaced, they are still potent greenhouse gases (GHGs). The Kigali Amendment phases down the use of HFCs by imposing a schedule for reducing a weighted GWP value to be implemented by a country through the year 2047 (Figure 1). It provides four paths depending on the country location and category assigned in the MP, and also prescribes a method for establishing the baseline consumption used for calculating GWP reductions. For developing countries, it is expected to bring the weighed GWP across all refrigeration applications down to about 300 from the baseline value of about 2000. The implementation of Kigali Amendment aims at reducing the future warming due to HFCs from the range of 0.3 °C to 0.5 °C to less than 0.1 °C [5]. While this reduction may seem to be small, it must be viewed in the context of the 2015 Paris Agreement [6], which calls for holding global warming to well below 2 °C and pursuing to limit global warming to 1.5 °C relative to pre-industrial levels [6]. Considering that average global temperatures reached 1 °C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in 2015 [7], the Earth is already within 1 °C of the “2 °C limit”.The low-GWP requirement narrows the pool of fluids that can be considered for application as a refrigerant [8]. This Informatory Note discusses low-GWP refrigerant options for major applications and presents their selection merits.

Yana Motta, Samuel↗

DOE OSTI2022

Materials research and development needs to enable efficient and electrified buildings

Because of the complexity of modern buildings—with many interconnected materials, components, and systems—fully electrifying buildings will require targeted R&D and efficient coordination across those material, component, and system levels. Because buildings that consume the smallest amount of energy are easier to electrify, energy efficiency is a crucial step toward fully electrified buildings. Materials advances will play an important role in both reducing the energy intensity of buildings and electrifying their remaining energy use. Materials are currently being explored, discovered, synthesized, evaluated, optimized, and implemented across many building components, including solid-state lighting; dynamic windows and opaque envelopes; cold climate heat pumps; thermal energy storage; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC); refrigeration; non-vapor compression HVAC; and more. In this article, we review the current state-of-the-art of materials for various buildings end uses and discuss R&D challenges and opportunities for both efficiency and electrification.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2023

Tuning the temperature range of superelastic Ni-Ti alloys for elastocaloric cooling via thermal processing

Abstract Caloric cooling enlisting solid-state refrigerants is potentially a promising eco-friendly alternative to conventional cooling based on vapor compression. The most common refrigerant materials for elastocaloric cooling to date are Ni-Ti based superelastic shape memory alloys. Here, we have explored tuning the operation temperature range of Ni 50.8 Ti 49.2 for elastocaloric cooling. In particular, we have studied the effect of thermal treatments (a.k.a. aging) on the transformation temperature, superelasticity, and elastocaloric effects of Ni 50.8 Ti 49.2 shape memory alloy tubes. The isothermal compressive test revealed that the residual strain of thermally-treated Ni-Ti tubes at room temperature approaches zero as aging time is increased. Short-time aging treatment at 400 °C resulted in good superelasticity and elastocaloric cooling performance with a large tunable austenite finish ( A f ) temperature range of 24.7 °C, as determined from the A f temperature of the samples that were aged 5–120 min. The main reason of the property change is the formation of a different amount of Ni 4 Ti 3 precipitates in the NiTi matrix. Our findings show that it is possible to tailor the A f temperature range for development of cascade elastocaloric cooling systems by thermally treating a starting single composition Ni-Ti alloy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Highly-Efficient Microemulsion-Based Absorption Chillers for HVAC Application

Air conditioning is a necessity to achieve a comfortable, habitable home or office for many places in US. However, vapor compression air conditioners are largely made with chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, or CFCs, which create problems for a world grappling with climate change. In addition, vapor compression air conditioners are driven by electricity. Cooling and heating represent one-third of building electrical energy consumption in US. An absorption chiller is different to vapor compression chillers or air conditioners because it doesn’t use conventional refrigerants, like CFC. Instead, they may use water as the refrigerant which is mixed with safe and nontoxic absorbents. The research performed in this project advanced the understanding of absorption cooling technology and its application in HVAC. Various technologies were explored to improve the performance of the desorber and absorber components in the absorption chillers.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2022

Effective properties of semitransparent radiative cooling materials with spectrally variable properties

Radiative cooling is a promising solid-state, non-vapor-compression technology for passive refrigeration and air conditioning. Although this phenomenon occurs naturally, achieving a significant amount of cooling to make it a technically and economically viable technology requires highly engineered, spectrally selective radiative surfaces. These characteristics make radiative cooling difficult to estimate, particularly when it is integrated with other systems such as photovoltaic panels or building envelopes. The complexity further increases when the substrate also participates in the radiative cooling (along with the radiative coating). Energy estimation is becoming increasingly critical because of the recent focus on the semitransparent radiative coatings that transmit a variety of colors to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the system. In this work, we propose an iterative method to calculate the effective radiative properties, which provides the same net radiative cooling that would be observed using the spectral properties at both the coating and substrate surfaces. Compared to traditional methods that rely on either computationally expensive full spectral analysis or methods for averaging each radiative surface parameter locally, our proposed method focuses on calculating effective properties that provide the same the net cooling effect as a full spectral analysis by accounting the emissivity, absorptivity, and transmissivity collectively, thereby providing an overall estimation error of less than 0.2%. We believe that this study will be beneficial to the engineering communities that employ complex simulation codes and require lumped solar and thermal radiation related parameters.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

Eliminating the Need for Refrigerants Using New Liquid and Salt-Based Cooling and Heat-Pumping Technology (CRADA Final Report)

Calion Technologies, Inc. project team investigated various embodiments of the ionocaloric cycle. Ionocaloric technology provides a new platform for all heating and cooling that is zero-GWP, non-toxic, non-hazardous, and non-flammable. It is well-poised to replace vapor compression technology which uses high-GWP refrigerants which are on track to account for 25% of our global warming budget. Developing the ionocaloric technology as a drop-in replacement for vapor compression was the primary research thrust under this CRADA.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2026

Compressor is A Sensor (Final Report)

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Universal Refrigerant Charge Fault Detection and Diagnostics Method Based on Pump Down Operation

The performance of the heat pump system varies greatly depending on the refrigerant charge amount. Improving the refrigerant charge fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) method of vapor compression systems have the potential for increasing energy efficiency and reducing service cost. Previous studies to predict refrigerant charge amount are mostly empirical methods which require significant amount of experimental data for high accuracy. The primary goal of this research is to develop a universal charge fault detection method which requires only a few experimental data with high prediction accuracy.Currently, pump down operations are typical practices by HVAC technicians when they need to open the refrigerant circuit to make a repairment. In addition, compressors have a built-in low-pressure cut-off protection function, and the compressor performance maps are commonly available from manufacturers. The proposed method innovatively utilizes the typical pump down operation, the compressor low-pressure cut-off protection, and the compressor performance map. It does not require any geometry information of heat exchangers, refrigerant lines, or charge buffers.The new charge prediction method is firstly formulated through theoretical analysis, then verified and calibrated by a quasi-steady-state simulation of the pump down process for a residential heat pump system. The quasi steady-state simulation uses an HVAC system simulation framework driven by DOE/ORNL Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM). Preliminary experiment validations with heat pump refrigerant leakage tests demonstrate the deviation of the proposed charge prediction method compared with measurement is within 8%. This technology makes refrigerant charge amount available at the technician’s fingertips and leads to shorter maintenance time and fewer site visits.

Li, Zhenning↗

DOE OSTI2021

Integrated Thermal Energy Storage System for Air-Conditioners with Phase-Change Composites

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a promising solution to store and dispatch energy and shave peak electric load, reducing the operational cost of HVAC systems. We present results of a TES system using phase-change materials (PCM) integrated with an air conditioner. The proposed system uses an organic PCM (tetradecane) encapsulated within compressed expanded natural graphite foams referred to as phase-change composite. The graphite foam encapsulates the PCM eliminating the need for expensive storage vessels, reduces installation costs, and provides higher thermal conductivity that can lead to faster charge/discharge rates. Two serpentines, multi-pass circuits, operating as a heat source and a sink, exchange heat to and from the phase-change composite. These two circuits are embedded in multiple slabs of this material. The "charge" circuit contains the refrigerant that is directly coupled to a vapor compression system, and the "discharge" circuit removes heat from an airstream and releases it into the PCM composite through a water-glycol liquid coupling. This configuration allows for multiple modes of operation depending on the state of charge of the thermal energy storage module, the building air-conditioning load, and the current electricity and demand charges. This flexible operation allows variable air volume capacity control without the need to have a variable capacity refrigeration system. We developed a 21 kW-hr (6 RT-hr) prototype TES system coupled with a commercial air-conditioner to characterize the component-and system-level performance.

air-conditioning↗

DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Serpentine Heat Exchangers to Minimize Number of Joints and Leakage in HVAC&R Systems

Refrigerant leakage has a significant impact on heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) industries in terms of both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lost efficiency of the systems themselves. One of the major causes of refrigerant leakage is braze joints within a vapor compression system. The brazing process is often inconsistent and almost always imperfect. As a result, braze joints are left vulnerable to leaks and can be weaker than non-brazed tubing. Conventional tube-fin heat exchangers are manufactured using one brazed joint per tube. An alternative to the conventional approach is the use of a single continuous serpentine tube. An Advanced Serpentine Heat Exchanger was developed to provide a heat transfer solution that meets or exceeds performance while also significantly reducing the number of joints and, consequently, the potential for refrigerant leakage. The developed serpentine heat exchanger not only delivers on performance, but is also cost competitive with conventional heat exchangers on the market.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

DOE OSTI2025

A Comprehensive Review of Working Fluids for High-Temperature Heat Pumps: History, Selection, and Evaluation

High-temperature heat pumps (HTHPs) are essential for enhancing energy efficiency across various industrial applications, especially in terms of integrating with renewable energy sources and recovering waste heat. This article thoroughly investigates suitable working fluids for HTHPs, highlighting the evolution from traditional refrigerants to contemporary alternatives with low global warming potential (GWP). It proposes comprehensive selection criteria for these working fluids, pre-selects low-GWP working fluids, and outlines a screening methodology. The pre-selected low-GWP working fluids are evaluated for applications in three typical industrial scenarios involving HTHPs. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that regulatory compliance and environmental impacts significantly influence the development of next-generation refrigerants. The choice of working fluids is closely linked to the types of vapor compression cycles, tailored to the specific industrial applications for HTHPs. This study emphasizes areas for future research, including the development of innovative working fluids; integrated strategies that account for performance, safety, and regulatory standards; alignment of HTHP components; exploration of natural working fluids; and broadening the applications of existing working fluids.

Compression↗

DOE OSTI2025

NFE-24-10417: Durability and Life-time Energy Performance Enhancement of Vapor Compression Systems

This project investigated the use of a Centrifugal Particle Separation (CPS) system to improve the durability and operational reliability of outdoor heat exchangers in vapor-compression based heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) systems. The developed method introduced a novel dust and fouling mitigation approach by integrating an ambient air pre-cleaner that employs centrifugal forces to remove particulate matter from incoming air before it reaches the heat exchanger. By reducing the accumulation of dust and debris on coil surfaces, the CPS system aims to lower maintenance requirements and extend equipment lifespan. The project specifically involves coupling a centrifugal air pre-cleaner with a single-zone ductless mini-split system and evaluating its effectiveness in maintaining cleaner coil surfaces. Additionally, the study examined the impact of CPS integration on system energy performance. Through controlled experimental testing and performance monitoring, this work seeks to validate CPS-based air pre-cleaning as a practical, efficient solution for mitigating outdoor coil dust accumulation and fouling in both residential and commercial HVACR applications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2021

Parametric Studies of Heat Pump Water Heater Using Low GWP Refrigerants

A storage heat pump water heater (HPWH) comprises a vapor compression system and a hot water tank. It can lead to more than 70% energy saving, compared with electric resistance heating. HPWH usually uses a wrapped-tank coil as the water heater. The wrapped coil has a strong interaction with the water tank and impose a new challenge for the engineering design and simulation study. Based on the US DOE/ORNL Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM), i.e., a public-domain, component-based thermal system modelling platform, a segment-to-segment wrapped-tank coil model coupled with a one-dimensional stratified water tank model were developed, which facilitates modeling and design HPWHs having various configurations and components. Additionally, the hardware-based design model was used to evaluate refrigerants having lower global warming potentials to replace R-134a, including R-1234yf, R-1234ze, R-290, R-513A and R-450A, when effects of compressor size, refrigerant charge on 24-hour uniform energy factor (UEF) and first-hour rating (FHR) were investigated.In the drop-in replacements, R-1234ze achieved the best UEF, and R-290 resulted in the lowest UEF. When downsizing the compressor to maximize the UEFs, the UEFs of R-134a, R-290, R1234yf, R-450A and R-513A ascended to the range of 4.4 to 4.53, with R-513A having the highest UEF. The R-1234ze ended up having the lowest UEF of 4.27. Refrigerants having larger volumetric vaporization heat led to higher FHRs if using the fixed-size compressor, that R-290 resulted in the highest FHR.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Scalable and compact magnetocaloric heat pump technology

Magnetocaloric heat pumping (MCHP) promises to be more efficient than traditional vapor compression while also eliminating the deleterious effects of gaseous refrigerants. While MCHP devices have shown the temperature spans and efficiencies needed for different heating and cooling applications, they struggle to become commercially viable due to their large size and mass, and resultant high cost. This paper evaluates a baseline MCHP device and explores methods to boost its system power density (SPD). The key components of the baseline system are the gadolinium packed-particle bed active magnetic regenerator (AMR) and a magnetic source composed of permanent magnets and high permeability magnetic steel. To enhance the SPD, the paper evaluates maximizing the AMR volume, opting for first-order magnetocaloric materials, optimizing the magnet and AMR geometry, and reducing the size of magnets and magnetic steel parts. At larger thermal powers, increasing the AMR diameter and the number of magnetic poles were evaluated. Using finite element models, solid models, and estimates of magnetocaloric material performance, thermal powers ranging from 37 W to 44 kW at a nominal 10 K temperature span were projected, and SPD was estimated to improve from 6 W/kg to 81 W/kg. Neglecting end effects, an upper limit of 114 W/g is estimated. Compared to SPD of off-the-shelf compressors with similar environment temperatures, MCHP power density using gadolinium is competitive up to roughly 200 W of cooling power. This is extended to 1 kW when using LaFeSi alloys and up to 3 kW in the limiting case. In conclusion, these results indicate that the performance and mass of MCHP can match that of compressors, which is a critical step toward cost-competitive magnetocaloric technology.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Development of a near-isothermal transcritical CO 2 compression system with a liquid piston compressor

Compressors are critical components in vapor compression cycle systems, significantly contributing to energy consumption. As global demand for HVAC&R systems rises, enhancing compressor efficiency becomes increasingly vital. This paper introduces a novel liquid piston compressor integrated with a gas cooler for the transcritical CO 2 refrigeration cycle. The liquid piston enables CO 2 refrigerant compression within various types of heat exchangers, facilitating the transfer of compression heat to the heat transfer fluid. By releasing significant heat, this compressor allows for removing or downsizing the traditional gas cooler in the refrigeration system. This paper presents the experimental performance of the first near-isothermal compressor utilizing a liquid piston in a vapor compression cycle. The critical parameters affecting heat transfer are analyzed by using a 1-D simulation model to achieve a near-isothermal compression process. The results show that the developed prototype successfully reduced the compression temperature increase from 95 K to 10 K, achieving 90 % isothermal efficiency. Furthermore, the 1-D simulation results suggest the smaller internal diameter tubes benefit the isothermal efficiency the most.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

Bringing Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD) Tools into the Mainstream: Retro Commissioning and Continuous Commissioning of HVAC and Refrigeration Systems

HVAC systems in the commercial building sector consume about 3.4 quads of energy annually. Of all the HVAC systems, packaged rooftop air–conditioning units (RTUs) provide cooling and heating for over 60 percent of the commercial building floorspace (about 90 billion ft2) in the U.S. and they are a significant source of energy consumption and peak demand. All HVAC systems suffer from faults that impact thermal comfort and increase energy consumption. There are several commercially available Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostic (AFDD) tools on the market that can detect and diagnose faults, and if those faults are corrected, can save significant national energy. However, there are multiple market barriers for these tools including lack of independent verification of their performance in the field in terms of their technical capabilities, ease of use and installation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Technology Feasibility of High-Temperature Heat Pumps for Industrial Drying Process in the US

High-temperature heat pumps are a prospective technology for electrifying and decarbonizing industrial drying processes. This study investigates the technological potential of HTHPs in replacing fossil-fuel burners or steam boilers in industrial spray dryers. The performance of HTHPs with three configurations was investigated, including high high-temperature heat pump boosted with an electric air heater, a steam-generating high-temperature heat pump with multi-stage mechanical vapor compressions, and transcritical high-temperature heat pumps. R1336mzz(Z) is used as the refrigerant in both subcritical and transcritical high-temperature heat pumps, and R717 is used as the working fluid in the mechanical vapor recompression and the heat transfer fluids. Thermodynamic models are built to evaluate the energy efficiency of HTHPs. A case study was carried out on an industrial spray dryer integrated with a waste heat recuperator, where the HTHPs are used to recover precooled air with a dew point of 40℃ and supply heat for drying air at 200℃. For a high-temperature heat pump boosted with an electric air heater, a higher system-level COP is achieved with a high supply temperature from high-temperature heat pump. For a high-temperature heat pump with mechanical vapor recompressions, larger temperature drops in the flashing tank provide higher heat capacities but almost constant values of the coefficient of performance. For a transcritical high-temperature heat pump, an optimum discharge pressure exists for the temperature profiles within the gas cooler and the coefficient of performance. The transcritical high-temperature heat pump provides the best energy efficiency among the three configurations. The theoretical results prove the technical feasibility of high-temperature heat pumps in industrial air-drying applications. .

Wang, Pengtao↗