Development of a High-Efficiency Gas-Liquid Separator for Room Air Conditioner

A gas-liquid separation cycle is one of the technologies that can improve the cooling capacity. In this study, the availability of a conventional gas-liquid separator for the room air conditioner of 7.1 kW class was evaluated and an improved gas-liquid separator that has an inflow pipe with a bottom hole and some side holes was proposed. The proposed gas-liquid separator was further improved for easy manufacturing and the gas separation efficiency and the cooling capacity when the gas-liquid separation cycle was applied to the room air conditioner of 7.1 kW class were investigated. As a result, approximately complete gas-liquid separation was realized and the cooling capacity was improved by about 3%.