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Ejector boosts air-conditioning
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01/11/2007
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Replacing the expansion valve with an ‘ejector’ (a small refrigerant injector) has enabled Denso to increase the efficiency of the air-conditioning cooling cycle in the Toyota Land Cruiser launched in Japan during September.
The air conditioner and cooler box use the same refrigeration cycle. In a conventional refrigeration cycle, a solenoid valve switches between refrigerant flow for cooling in the air conditioner and refrigeration in the cooler box, which affects air conditioning performance when the cooler box is used. Denso’s system, which it says is the first of its kind for use in cars, eliminates the solenoid valve and uses an ejector instead of an expansion valve, which allows cooling via the car air conditioner and refrigeration through the cooler box simultaneously.
Using an ejector that rapidly injects and expands high-pressure refrigerant means the energy previously lost in the expansion valve is converted to pressure energy and reused.
“An ejector system can drastically improve the energy efficiency in the refrigeration cycle, and we are now working to develop a system specifically for systems,” said Hikaru Sugi, manager of Denso’s Thermal System Business Group
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Author
Roger Bishop
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