Performance Enhancement Analysis of Environmentally Friendly Refrigerants

Due to the impact of global warming and climate change, more and more people are starting to have a clearer understanding and vigilance about greenhouse gases. To prevent further deterioration of the global environment, this study examines the coefficients of performance of 21 currently available refrigerants with very low global-warming potential and zero ozone-depleting potential under evaporation temperatures of 10, −20, −40, and −60 °C and condensation temperatures of 30, 40, and 50 °C, respectively. It is found that the use of pure refrigerant in a two-stage refrigeration system to replace the single-stage refrigeration system, in addition to mixing it into an appropriate mixture, can effectively improve the performance coefficient of the refrigeration system. For single-stage vapor compression refrigeration systems, R1234ze(Z), R601, and R1233zd(E) have the best refrigeration performances among the environmentally friendly refrigerants studied, while R441A performs the worst for T_eva = 10 °C and −20 °C. Moreover, RE170 has the highest COP of the refrigeration system for T_eva = −40 °C and −60 °C. However, R1234yf performs worse in COP when the evaporation temperature is lower, and it ranks last for T_eva = −60 °C. When a double-stage vapor compression refrigeration system is employed instead, the percentage increase in the COP of the system using R1234yf becomes the largest for T_eva = −40 °C and −60 °C. However, the growth rate of R717 ranks last for T_eva = −60 °C. For an R717/R1234yf mixture at an optimum mass fraction of 0.25, the COP of the refrigeration system can be increased up to 25.8% despite an increase of 15.2% in operating pressure compared to R1234yf. The discharge temperature may rise; however, there will be no overheating problem for the compressor.