Comparative Analysis of Performance of Three Ozone-Friends HFC Refrigerants in a Vapour Compression Refrigerator

Abstract

In this paper, the performances of three ozone-friendly Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants (R32, R134a and R152a) in a vapour compression refrigeration system were investigated experimentally and compared. The results obtained showed that R32 yielded undesirable characteristics, such as high pressure and low Coefficient of Performance (COP). Comparison among the investigated refrigerants confirmed that R152a and R134a have approximately the same performance, but the best performance was obtained from the used of R152a in the system. As a result, R152a could be used as a drop-in replacement for R134a in vapour compression refrigeration system. The COP of R152a obtained was higher than those of R134a and R32 by 2.5% and 14.7% respectively. Also, R152a offers the best desirable environmental requirements; zero Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) and very low Global Warming Potential (GWP).