Exergoeconomic analysis of carbon dioxide transcritical refrigeration machines

•Application of a CO2 transcritical refrigeration machine is discussed for hot climates.•Energetic and exergy evaluations are conducted.•Economic and exergoeconomic evaluations are conducted.•Structure improvements are proposed and evaluated.

In the last two decades many scientific papers and reports have been published in the field of the application of the carbon dioxide as a refrigerant for refrigeration (heat pump) systems. A simple transcritical CO2 refrigeration machine is evaluated from the perspectives of energetic, exergetic, economic and exergoeconomic analyses. Special attention has been paid to the transcritical cycle under hot climatic conditions. The main goal of this paper is to define the energy and cost efficient transcritical CO2 refrigeration machine, therefore the options for the structure and parametric improvements are discussed. Introducing the economizer as an auxiliary component for one-stage transcritical CO2 refrigeration machine helps us to decrease the total cost of the final product by approximately 14%.