Research Projects

Overexploitation and excessive energy use have led to significant economic and environmental crises worldwide. Indoor cooling, refrigeration requirements, and access to clean water are major sources of power consumption in hot and arid regions. This study proposes a combined refrigeration and desalination system using non-renewable solar thermal energy. The system consists of an ejector refrigeration system and a heat exchanger that can function as an auxiliary steam generator for desalination purposes. The solar ejector runs on high-pressure steam generated from solar power, with the ejector mixing a supersonic primary fluid (steam) with an environmentally friendly refrigerant. The compressed stream is compressed using aerodynamic shock waves, achieving the same compression effect as a mechanical compressor in a normal vapor compression refrigeration system. A heat exchanger is provided at the exit of the ejector to tap the thermal energy of steam for auxiliary steam generation, which can be used for a multi-effect distillation system. The design and study of the ejector are crucial, as it involves complex flow characteristics such as supersonic jet-jet interactions, shock wave interactions, shock waves in compressible multiphase flows, and supersonic mixing between two streams. A detailed parametric study is needed to improve the overall design of the system. The proposal is expected to provide an extensive parametric study and correlation charts, providing insight into the complex fluid mechanics aspects of supersonic ejector flows and how an ejector refrigeration system running on low-grade energy, such as solar or waste heat, will behave when coupled with other auxiliary systems.