Thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by a combustion-powered thermoacoustic engine - Demonstrator of device for rural areas of developing countries

This paper presents the design, construction and experimental evaluation of a demonstrator thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by a combustion-powered thermoacoustic engine. The system was developed to be a low-cost device for users based in remote and rural areas of developing countries. It employs a thermoacoustic engine/refrigerator coupling based on a travelling wave looped-tube configuration because of its relatively good thermal performance and construction simplicity. In the present demonstrator, a propane gas burner is used to simulate the thermal input from biomass combustion which is envisaged to be the source of energy for driving the system. Atmospheric air is applied as working fluid, while the operating frequency of the loop is 58.6 Hz. The location of the refrigerator is optimized experimentally to achieve the maximum cooling performance. So far, the lowest temperature achieved at the cold end of the regenerator is -3.6°C, while the maximum COPR achieved is 1.42%.