Development and performance of steam ejector refrigeration system operated in real application in Thailand

This paper presents the design and construction of a prototype steam ejector refrigeration system which can be operated under the actual condition of Thai environment, which is rather hot and humid. The prototype refrigerator was designed to produce a cooling capacity of approximately 3 kW. Water was selected to be used as the working fluid. The steam boiler used was a vertical fire tube type and it was designed to be used with LPG compact gas burner. The condenser was cooled by water obtained from a conventional cooling tower. The prototype refrigerator was used to produce chilled water which was used to cool a small tested room. It was observed that the room temperature of 24.2 degrees C was obtained at the cooling load of 3000 W. The cooling water was supplied to the condenser at about 30 degrees C. The COP obtained was 0.45. This prototype refrigerator is proven to be practical and can be used in actual environment of Thailand. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.