PDEng position in Energy and Process Technology: Industrial heat pump

There are several expansion work recovery methods that can be employed for the enhancement of the COP of the cycle. The common feature of these methods is the utilization of the kinetic energy released during the pressure reduction of the fluid as it passes from high to the low-pressure side instead of dissipating it in a throttling process. Thus, an isentropic expansion process is approached rather than isenthalpic throttling. There are various systems such as reciprocating pistons, rolling/swing piston, vane, scroll, turbo, vortex tube, etc that have shown tremendous potential in expansion work recovery. The research activity of this PDeng position focuses on designing a device for expansion work recovery. For this purpose, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model will be developed and used for the optimization of the selected expansion device.

This research will be part of a larger project in which several other related technologies will be investigated by different research groups.