INVESTIGATING THE PERFORMANCE OF A TRANSCRITICAL BOOSTER REFRIGERATION SYSTEM WITHCARBON DIOXIDE IN TROPICAL CLIMATES: THE CASE OF BENIN

This article presents a prospective study of low carbon footprint refrigeration systems in tropical climates. A transcritical carbon dioxide booster refrigeration system is simulated within the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) environment. The results are discussed under the weather conditions Cotonou, Benin. The performance of the transcritical booster cycle increases with low ambient temperatures the Coefficient of Performance (COP) increased by 94.2% when the ambient temperature went from 40°C to 25°C). The gas cooler pressure and the medium pressure were ctoptimised and two correlations were developed to predict the optimal gas cooler pressure and intermediate pressure for which the COP value is maximum. It should be noted that these pressures are very sensitive to changes in ambient temperature and they vary proportionally with the temperature at the end of cooling and in a linear fashion.