Experimental Investigation of Drop-In Application of Natural Refrigerants

Abstract

Cooling of raw materials and products in the food industry as well as in the whole food chain, including transportation and storage is an important task because it has a great impact to the product quality. This paper deal with the drop-in application of refrigerants in cooling systems used in the food industry. The focus of my research is to investigate the defrosting cycle of an evaporator in a cooling chamber with respect to the thermal medium used. Since during the process the temperature of the chamber can fluctuate, which can increase the deterioration of the stored food. My hypothesis is that if an environmentally or energetically beneficial change of refrigerant is implemented in a plant, the length of defrosting cycles will also change. My aim is to mathematically describe the relationship between refrigerants, chamber temperature and defrosting time. This will help to predict the effect of a possible refrigerant change on the length of the defrost cycle as a function of the chamber temperature.