Numerical Analysis of the Thermal Performance of a CO2 Refrigerating Unit for Multi-Temperature Transport Applications

The importance of refrigerated transport is growing, due to increasingdemand for safety and quality preservation in temperature sensitivegoods. Land transport with refrigerated vehicles is the most common modeof perishable products transportation and represents an important linkin the cold chain. Last mile delivery is spreading out, often requiringtransportation at different preservation temperatures. The choice of therefrigerant in transport vapor-compression systems is undergoing a toughrevision, following the phase-down of synthetics imposed by the EU F-gasRegulation. Facing these challenges, this study describes a CO2vapor-compression system for multi-temperature refrigerated transportapplications, integrating a two-phase ejector. A numerical model of theunit is developed and steady-state simulations are carried out toevaluate the theoretical performance of the system under differentoperating conditions. Results will help to assess the influence of theoperating parameters on the system COP and refrigerating effectmaximization for perishables transport applications.