Assessment of propane/commercial butane mixtures as possible alternatives to R134a in domestic refrigerators

Abstract

Abstract The possibility of using hydrocarbon mixtures as working fluids to replace R134a in domestic refrigerators has been evaluated through a simulation analysis in the present work. The performance characteristics of domestic refrigerators were predicted over a wide range of evaporation temperatures (−35 to −10 °C) and condensation temperatures (40–60 °C) for various working fluids such as R134a, propane, commercial butane and propane/iso-butane/ n -butane mixtures with various propane mass fractions. The performance characteristics of the considered domestic refrigerator were identified by the coefficient of performance (COP), volumetric cooling capacity, cooling capacity, condenser capacity, input power to compressor, discharge temperature, pressure ratio and refrigerant mass flow rate. The results showed that pure propane could not be used as a drop in replacement for R134a in domestic refrigerators because of its high operating pressures and low COP. Commercial butane yields many desirable characteristics but requires a compressor change. The coefficient of performance of the domestic refrigerator using a ternary hydrocarbon mixture with propane mass fractions from 0.5 to 0.7 is higher than that of R134a. Comparison among the considered working fluids confirmed that the average refrigerant mass flow rate of the propoane/commercial butane mixture is 50% lower than that of R134a. Also, the results indicated that R134a and the propoane/commercial butane mixture with 60% propane mass concentration have approximately the same values of saturation pressure, compressor discharge temperature, condenser heat load, input power, cooling capacity and volumetric cooling capacity. However, the pressure ratio of the hydrocarbon mixture with 60% propane is lower than that of R134a by about 11.1%. Finally, the reported results confirmed that the propane/iso-butane/ n -butane mixture with 60% propane is the best drop in replacement for R134a in domestic refrigerators under normal, subtropical and tropical operating conditions.