Denso has developed the world’s first passenger vehicle air conditioning system that uses ejector technology. The ejector, which is a small refrigerant injector, contributes to an overall reduction in power consumption. The system will be installed on the new Prius, introduced by Toyota this month. Much of the energy consumed by a vehicle’s air conditioning system is used by the compressor to compress the refrigerant. In conventional air conditioning systems, an expansion valve is used to reduce the pressure of the refrigerant before passing it through the evaporator to cool the air. DENSO’s new system uses an ejector instead of an expansion valve.
The ejector recovers expansion energy, which was previously lost in the expansion valve, and converts it into pressure energy. This, reduces the compressor’s workload and helps reduce the air conditioner’s overall power consumption.
The ejector cycle system evaporator (ECS evaporator), which is equivalent to the size of a conventional evaporator, can also be applied to conventional air conditioning systems. DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global supplier of advanced technology, systems and components.The Denso ECS evaporator will be displayed at DENSO’s booth at the Automotive Technology Exposition to be held in Pacifico Yokohama, JAPAN from May 20 to 22, 2009.
