Performance analysis of absorption heat transformer cycles using ionic liquids based on imidazolium cation as absorbents with 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol as refrigerant

•TFE + [emim][BF4] (or [bmim][BF4]) absorption heat transformer cycles are studied.•Influence of various operating conditions on cycle’s performance is investigated.•Performance comparisons with H2O + LiBr and TFE + TEGDME cycles are done.•Enthalpy data for TFE + [emim][BF4] (or [bmim][BF4]) liquid mixtures are calculated.•TFE + [emim][BF4] (or [bmim][BF4]) cycles have higher gross temperature lift (GTL).

A detailed thermodynamic performance analysis of a single-stage absorption heat transformer and double absorption heat transformer cycles using new working pairs composed of ionic liquids (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([emim][BF4]) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([bmim][BF4])) as absorbent and 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) as refrigerant has been studied. Several performance indicators were used to evaluate and compare the performance of the cycles using the TFE + [emim][BF4] and TFE + [bmim][BF4] working pairs with the conventional H2O + LiBr and organic TFE + TEGDME working pairs. The obtained results show that the ionic liquid based working pairs are suitable candidates to replace the conventional H2O + LiBr working pairs in order to avoid the disadvantages associated with it mainly crystallization and corrosion and also they perform better (higher gross temperature lift) than TFE + TEGDME working pair at several operating conditions considered in this work.