Theoretical Investigation of the Performance of Some Environment-Friendly Refrigerants in a Sub-cooling Heat Exchanger Refrigerator

Abstract

As a result of global concerns over the depletion of the earths protective stratospheric ozone layer by the atmospheric release of chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluoro-carbons (HCFCs) refrigerants, their production has been restricted and they are no longer choices for new equipment. This paper presents theoretical investigation of the performance of some environment-friendly refrigerants in a sub-cooling heat exchanger refrigeration system. Five promising environment-friendly refrigerants (R23, R32, R134a, R143a and R152a) were selected from methane and ethane derivatives and they were investigated theoretically. Sub-cooling heat exchanger was used to evaluate the impact of selected refrigerants on the exchanger effectiveness, system capacity and coefficient of performance (COP). The results obtained showed excellent performance of R152a and R134a, and fair performance of R143a when compared with R12 in vapour compression refrigeration system. The results also showed that using R23 and R32 in the refrigeration system will be detrimental to the system performance