17/10/2022

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE,

PILANI HYDERABAD CAMPUS, SECUNDERABAD,
TELANGANA–500078

ME G531 HEATING AND COOLING OF BUILDINGS

Seminar Report - 1
Topic: NEW REFRIGERANTS, REFRIGERATION SAFETY
Submitted by
ADITYA S R 2021H1060264H

Under the guidance of

SANDIP DESHMUKH
Professor
Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION: .............................................................................................................................. 3
WHAT ARE REFRIGERANTS? ................................................................................................................ 3
SYNTHETIC REFRIGERANTS: ................................................................................................................ 3
REFRIGERANTS FOR OTHER REFRIGERATION PROCESSES: ................................................................. 3
CHOOSING THE REFRIGERANT: ........................................................................................................... 4
 Content: .................................................................................................................................. 4
METHODS FOR COMPARISON OF REFRIGERANTS: ............................................................................. 4
 Content: .................................................................................................................................. 5
II. WHAT`S NEW ON REFRIGERANTS? ................................................................................................. 5
 Content: .................................................................................................................................. 5
COMPONENTS FOR BLENDS:............................................................................................................... 5
NEW REFRIGERANTS FOR LOW TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS BELOW -50°C: ................................. 5
NEW BLENDS FOR THE SUBSTITUTION OF R134a: .............................................................................. 6
 I. INTRODUCTION:

WHAT ARE REFRIGERANTS?

According to standards EN378-1 or ISO817 a refrigerant is a "fluid, that is used for heat transfer
in refrigeration systems and that absorbs heat at low temperature and low pressure and releases
heat at higher temperature and pressure, while usually a change of state of appearance
happens". The change of state happens, amongst others, in vapor compression refrigeration
systems, which are dominantly dealt with in the named standards and this document. Early
refrigeration machines used working fluids that were known to cool while evaporating.
Amongst those were ethers, sulfur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2),
methyl chloride (CH3Cl) and hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons showed favorable
thermodynamic properties, easing the design of refrigeration systems, compared to other fluids.
Additionally, they are non-toxic. The denomination of e.g., propane as refrigerant 290 or R290
or ammonia as R717 according to ISO817 also implies the applicability in a refrigeration
system. This means, the denomination R290 implies a defined purity that allows to determine
or calculate the thermodynamic properties with sufficient accuracy and enables reliable
operation.
SYNTHETIC REFRIGERANTS:
During the development of the first synthetic refrigerants the target was to reach
thermodynamic properties similar to those of hydrocarbons, while avoiding flammability. An
exchange of hydrogen atoms in hydrocarbons by halogens, mainly chlorine and fluorine, partly
bromine, led to the first "safety refrigerants" R11 and R12, later R22, R13B1 and so on. These
fully halogenated chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFC) came to the market from 1930 on. The simple
and safe handling led to the replacement of all other fluids in commercial and household
refrigeration within approximately 20 years. As the chlorine and bromine parts contribute
heavily to the depletion of the ozone layer, today's synthetic refrigerants are mainly fluorinated
hydrocarbons. Most of those are partly fluorinated and some are based on unsaturated
hydrocarbons, like propene, some on ethers. By this, the atmospheric lifetime is shortened and
the global warming potential reduced.
REFRIGERANTS FOR OTHER REFRIGERATION PROCESSES:
Gas cycles; In gas cycle refrigeration systems, a gas far above its critical temperature is used,
staying gaseous during the complete cycle. The temperature increase during compression and
the decrease during expansion with extraction of mechanical power is utilised. Thus, gas cycle
machines usually add an expansion machine, called expander, to the compressor. Gas cycle
machines need a working fluid that has a large temperature change during these process steps
corresponding to a high isentropic coefficient. Well suited as refrigerant are helium and air.
Known gas cycle machines are Stirling machines and air cycle machines:
 Stirling machines typically work with helium.
 Air cycle machines can be designed as closed circuits, but also as open systems. The
open system takes in the air from the room to be refrigerated, compresses, cools it in
heat exchange with ambient air, and supplies it back to the room after the expander.
With the cold side temperature close to ambient temperature, gas cycles are usually considered
less efficient than vapour compression systems. At temperatures below ca. -50°C, they have
efficiency advantages. With gas cycles, large temperature lifts can be reached with low to
moderate pressure ratio.
At higher cold side temperatures, like AC, the use can be beneficial in terms of efficiency, if
not only the refrigeration system is looked at. When evaluating e.g; aircraft air conditioning
systems, also the energy use for transport of the system has to be taken into consideration.
Refrigerants for gas cycles are not dealt with in more detail in this document.
CHOOSING THE REFRIGERANT:
This elaboration is about refrigerants for vapour compression systems (for gas cycles: What
are refrigerants?). The vapour compression process is dominating most areas of refrigeration,
especially those with large production numbers of systems.
 The refrigeration systems and appliances can be designed flexible and with low material
and cost effort due to the low necessary mass flow.
 As the phase change is utilised, a large amount of energy can be transported per kg.
 The liquid refrigerant is easy to direct to the refrigerated rooms and appliances and the
evaporated refrigerant is easy to be extracted, while the heat release and compression
can be done at other places.
 Decoupling cold and hot side is an advantage for efficiency.
But before a refrigerant can be evaluated in terms of thermodynamics and efficiency in
refrigeration applications, some other aspects need a closer look: material compatibility,
availability of compatible lubricants, thermal and chemical stability and general availability of
the fluid in sufficient amount at acceptable cost.
 Content:
I. Thermodynamics
II. Pressure level
III. Material compatibility
IV. Thermal and chemical stability
V. Environmental impact
VI. Dangers for users and technicians
METHODS FOR COMPARISON OF REFRIGERANTS:
Comparing refrigerants has to be done carefully to get a useful and technically neutral, unbiased
result. Think about the importance, as the choice of refrigerant is one of the first things to be
fixed, when refrigeration systems, especially heat exchangers, are dimensioned or selected.
This has important impact on the further calculations. As different refrigerants have different
properties, it can be assumed that also the optimum process and circuit design differs at some
points.
Simple and short comparisons of refrigerants thus usually have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Describing the possible range of comparisons can start with the saying in computer industry
"benchmarking is lying" and end with the statement of professor Gustav Lorentzen that, if
refrigerants are used in a working range, where they are well applicable, the difference in
efficiency is in the range of a few percent. Looking at both, it seems that the way of doing the
comparison can determine the result.
Thus, in every comparison, it is important to determine carefully which parameters will be
varied and which have to be fixed, to get to a neutral result. In the end, the comparison is meant
to help selecting a well suited or the best possible refrigerant for a given application.
For a first selection, the tables below (Refrigerant selection tables) are useful. With some
specific know how in refrigeration, the candidates can also be compared using the data in the
BITZER RefRuler App, which is easily available.
 Content:
I. Preselection with refrigerant tables
II. Comparison via refrigerant property data
III. Comparison based on component data

II. WHAT`S NEW ON REFRIGERANTS?

The developments on refrigerants are clustered in three groups here. After developing
successors for the most widely used refrigerants now also refrigerants for applications below -
50°C are offered. Some new components for blends appeared recently. The substances and
blends are also listed in the chapter Refrigerant selection tables. The values for GWP of blends
were partly calculated based on the composition.
 Content:
I. Components for blends
II. New refrigerants for low temperature applications below -50°C
III. New blends for the substitution of R134a
COMPONENTS FOR BLENDS:
The unsaturated components – CFO and HFO – now also used partly originate from plastics
production processes. As they are categorised in flammability class 2, they are not used as
single component refrigerant. Material compatibility has to be investigated because these
substances were not used widely as refrigerants. The three listed substances do not fall under
the definition of PFAS in the Registration of Intent for REACH of July 2021.
Refrigerant Normal boiling Safety class GWPAR4 GWPAR6 Application
point in °C
R1130(E) +48 B2 5 In blends for turbo air conditioning
systems, high temperature heat
pumps
R1132a -84 A2 1 0, 05 Increases capacity in blend similar
to R744
R1132(E) -52, 5 B2 1 For A2L blends substituting R404A
with less temperature glide

NEW REFRIGERANTS FOR LOW TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS BELOW -

50°C:
Several blends are now offered, often containing R744 as a component but moving the triple
point to lower temperatures with the help of the other components. The high content of R744
keeps the blends non-flammable. The high temperature glide of two of these blends requires a
special system design, as already known similarly from R469A.
Refrigerant Normal Normal dew Safety class GWPAR4 GWPAR6 Application
boiling point in °C
point in °C
R472A -84, 3 -61, 5 A1 353 384 ≤ -50°C
R472B -82, 9 -54, 8 A1 526 567 ≤ -50°C
R473A -75, 8 -72, 2 A1 1830 1835 ≤ -50°C

NEW BLENDS FOR THE SUBSTITUTION OF R134a:

For application in commercial refrigeration, other standard applications and ranging to
automotive air conditioning, blends with low global warming potential are developed.
Amongst those registered at ISO are substitutes for R134a with GWP below 750 and similar
refrigeration capacity, but also some targeting GWP AR4 below 150 with reduced capacity.
The demand for GWP below 150 of the EU F-Gas Regulation for compressor racks in food
retail can be fulfilled e.g., for new systems utilizing direct cooling with an A1 refrigerant and
some more volume flow.
Refrigerant Normal Normal dew Safety class GWPAR4 GWPAR6 Application
boiling point in °C
point in °C
R471A 16, 8 -14, 6 A1 148 148 Medium temp, AC
R474A -43, 1 -36, 4 A2L 2 Automotive AC with
higher capacity than
R1234yf
R475A -28, 8 -28, 3 A1 619 695 Medium temp, AC
R476A -19, 1 -16, 1 A1 156 Medium temp, AC
R516A -29, 4 -29, 4 A2L 142 153 Medium temp, AC

III. REFERENCE:
1. https://www.bitzer.de/shared_media/html/a-500-501/en-GB/index.html
2. Sumit Kumar Bandey, A STUDY ON REFRIGERANTS - IRJET
3. BranimirPavkovic, “Past, Present And Future Perspectives Of Refrigerants In Air-Conditioning
Applications” REHVA Journal