Experimental Performance Analysis of VCR System Using Mixture of Hydrocarbon (R134a/R600a) with Different Concentrations

In this research work, an experimental performance study on a VCR system with refrigerant mixtures based on HFC 134a and HC 600a is done for various composition ratios and loading conditions. This paper provides experimental results of R134a and the mixtures of R600a with R134a used in the experimentation. The tests are conducted at 0W, 50 Watt, 100 Watt and 150 Watt load with different mass concentrations (40/60, 50/50, 60/40, 70/30 and 80/20 mass %). Experimental results showed that all of the alternative refrigerants investigated in the analysis have a higher performance coefficient (COP) than HFC134a for evaporating temperatures ranging between −30 °C to 12 °C. Refrigerant blends of HFC134/HC600a (50/ 50 by wt. %) instead of HFC134a are found to be replacement refrigerants among other alternatives as a result of the analysis. After the experimentation and analysis, it is found that the mixture of R134a/R600a (50/50 wt %) has improved the performance of the system by 4.10 % than R134a with 3.73% less power consumption.