Different Refrigerants and their Impact on Vapour-Compression Refrigeration Systems

The main aim of this project is to compare the performance of vapour compression refrigeration systems with diverse refrigerant mixtures like R152a, R32, R290, R1270, R600a and RE170 to that of vapour compression refrigeration systems using R134a, CFC22, CFC12, and R134a. This is done in order to find the possibility of an alternative or replacement to the traditional refrigerants. Despite the properties of HC refrigerants like high flammability it is used in many applications. However careful monitoring of the leakage from the system is done owing to safety issues. This is because unlike other refrigerants HC refrigerants are directly related to global warming and ozone layer depletion. The outcomes proved that among the replacement refrigerants studied in the analysis, R152a, RE170and R600a possess a commendable performance coefficient (COP) compared to CFC12, CFC22 and R134a. In the experiment condensation temperature is kept at 50 ⁰C while the evaporating temperature ranged from -30⁰C to 10⁰C. The influence of the significant parameters such as category of refrigerants, super heating and sub cooling degree on the refrigerating consequence, capacity of volumetric refrigeration and performance coefficient were investigated for different evaporating temperatures. Results showed better performance coefficient values (COP) for the alternative refrigerants.