Exergy Analysis and Parametric Study of a Sea Water Source Heat Pump System

This article presents the second law based analysis of a sea water source cascade heat pump system using two heat pumps operating with two different refrigerants. The cascade heat pump system is consists of two different heat pumps attached in series in a way that the condenser for the first stage heat pump is the evaporator for the second stage heat pump. This not only can enhance the exhaust temperature in the second condenser at the final stage but also can improve the performance of the overall system. The study has been made for a wide range of operating parameters. It is found that the performance based on the second law analysis is in the good agreement with the general results. The experimental performance is found to be different from the second law based performance. The system may achieve better performance if the irreversibility associated with different components can be minimized. The work for further investigations and modifications is underway to utilize the non conventional energy resources such as solar energy and biogas besides, the waste heat recovery for different applications and hence, the present system can be further modified for real life applications.