Experimental study on cooling performance and energy saving of gas engine-driven heat pump system with evaporative condenser

• GEHP air conditioning system with evaporative condenser was proposed.
• Cooling performances under different conditions were investigated.
• PER increased with increasing of evaporative condenser air velocity.
• The maximum value of PER was 1.55.
• The economical amount of GEHP with evaporative condenser was 28.1%.

The gas engine-driven heat pump (GEHP) is widely utilized to the process of cooling, heating or food drying. Aiming at improving the coefficient of performance (COP), primary energy ratio (PER) and energy saving of GEHP, a GEHP system with evaporative condenser was developed and the cooling performances were experimented over a wide range of ambient air temperature (30–36 °C), evaporative condenser air velocity (2.2–3.9 m/s) and gas engine speeds (1200–2200 rpm). Experimental results showed that the cooling capacity and PER of the GEHP system with evaporative condenser increased as the increasing of evaporative condenser air velocity and decreasing of ambient air temperature. The increasing and decreasing extents of cooling capacity and PER were 12.1%, 4.8% and 8.2%, 9.0%, respectively. However, the gas engine energy consumption and gas engine waste heat decreased with the increasing of evaporative air velocity and decreasing of ambient air temperature. Meanwhile, the cooling capacity, gas engine energy consumption, gas engine waste heat increased with increasing of gas engine speed, and the increase amplitude was 75.64%, 153.2% and 153.3%, respectively. The maximum value of PER of GEHP system with evaporative condenser was 1.55, and the waste heat recovered from gas engine was more than 55% of gas engine energy consumption.The energy saving and emission saving of the GEHP with evaporative condenser were also analyzed, the PER savings of GEHP system with evaporative condenser compared to conventional air-cooled condenser were 28.1%. Furthermore, compared to the GEHP with air-cooled condenser, the primary energy saving and CO2 emissions saving of GHEP with evaporative condenser were 16.3% and 8.8%. The results displayed an excellent energy-saving feature.