A new approach for environmental analysis of vapor compression refrigeration systems: Environmental impact index

Abstract

Vapor-compression refrigeration (VCR) cycles are used to transfer heat from a low-temperature environment to a high-temperature environment. To reduce harmful emissions, environmentally friendly refrigerants should be selected. Metrics like global warming potential and life cycle climate performance are used for environmentally friendly refrigerants. These metrics are independent of each other and are analyzed and evaluated separately. In this study, a new metric was proposed for the environmental analysis of VCR systems and named as environmental impact index (EII). EII defined for the first time in this research, includes the use of both energy, exergy, and low-emission renewable energy at the same time. Also, EII analysis of a cooling system using various refrigerants was performed for all cities of Türkiye. In the case of using R134a, R1234yf, and R1234ze refrigerants in the cooling system the cities with the highest and lowest EII values of the cooling system are Ardahan and Şanlıurfa, respectively. The EII of R134a, R1234yf, and R1234ze (E) for Şanlıurfa are 49.79, 51.81, and 49.75, respectively. The EII of R134a, R1234yf, and R1234ze (E) for Ardahan are 73.75, 75.13, and 73.13, respectively. It was concluded that when choosing refrigerants for VCR systems, attention should be paid not only to the GWP ratios of refrigerants, but also to energy and exergy performance, and energy options with lower emissions.