An ejector refrigeration cycle for utilizing solar thermal energy

Getting hot thermal energy from solar energy is popular but cooling with solar thermal energy is not spread so far. It is possible to reduce electricity demand to use solar energy for cooling in summer. We are designing a system of an ejector refrigeration cycle, especially concerning the configuration of ejector itself, which can generate cooling effect with high efficiency from academic viewpoint. The analytical [1], numerical [4], and experimental approaches are applied for designing the configuration. In this paper, the experimental viewpoint will be discussed. Two different configuration ejectors were experimentally tested regarding the performance with an indoor testing device under the conditions of generating, condensing, and evaporating temperature ranges being about 58-69 °C, 17-35 °C, and 10-15 °C, respectively. The performance reaches higher than 80 % at a certain combination of temperatures, although the performance of the ejectors strongly depends on the temperature combinations.