Hydrocarbon refrigerant for building air conditioning application in Indonesia: performance and safety analysis.

Abstract

Indonesia has taken an active role in the phase-out of ozone depleting substances and reduction of high global warming potential substances in HVACR systems. For air conditioning applications, the choice has been geared toward the use of natural refrigerant with hydrocarbons shows a great potential to be an alternative refrigerant. This paper presents review on the development of hydrocarbon refrigerant applications in Indonesia. As a case study, the installation, performance measurement and safety analysis of a hydrocarbon (R290) chiller for air conditioning application in an auditorium building at Universitas Indonesia is presented. Field measurement was performed on refrigerant, cooling water and air sides to obtain its performance at several cooling load conditions. The paper also presents analysis on the safety for the flammability aspects, charge limit as well as applicable national standards for its safe use and handling as well as benchmarking with international standard. The study showed that the hydrocarbon chiller is an energy efficient and safe option for air conditioning application in Indonesia.