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MODULE 2

MODULE 2
3.5 WEEKS

ALTERNATIVE
ALTERNATIVEREFRIGERANTS
REFRIGERANTSFOR
FORDIFFERENT
SECTORS & LUBRICANTS
DIFFERENT SECTORS AND LUBRICANTS
MODULE 2

OBJECTIVES:

In this module, the student should be able to:


• Understand the basic types of the Refrigeration Systems.
• Get introduced to the technologies for existing and new systems.
• Know the basics of lubrication technology.

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MODULE 2
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. TYPES OF REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS
3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY
4. SUBSTITUTES AND PROPERTIES
5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING SYSTEMS
6. LUBRICATION

7. SELECTION AND REQUIREMENTS


8. OIL LUBRICANT PROPERTIES
9. OIL LUBRICANT CATEGORIES
10. MINERAL COMPOSITION
11. COMPATIBILITY AND APPLICATIONS
12. SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS
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1. INTRODUCTION (1/2)
• The availability and application of refrigeration technology is critical to a
society’s standard of living. Preservation throughout the food chain and medical
applications are examples of key contributors to quality of life.
• Integrated energy consumption information is not available, but the largest
demand sector for refrigerants is estimated to use about 9% of world
power generation.

Source: www.c2es.org

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1. INTRODUCTION (2/2)
• This consumption of global power-generation capacity means that the relative
energy efficiency of alternatives can have a significant impact on indirect
GHG emissions.
• Also, lubrication technology is considered an important one in the vapor
compression systems.
• The oil must provide good material compatibility and have high thermal
stability properties and must be able to resist high and low temperatures.

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MODULE 2

2. TYPES OF REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS


a. Domestic Appliances
b. Air to Air Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps
c. Water Heating Heat Pumps
d. Commercial Refrigeration
e. Industrial systems
f. Transport refrigeration
g. Chillers
h. Vehicle Air Conditioning

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a. Domestic Appliances:
• Used for food storage in dwelling units and in non-commercial areas such as
offices.
• More than 170 millions units are produced annually.
• Polyurethane closed cell foam is typically used for thermal insulation.

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b. Air-to-Air Air Conditioners And Heat Pumps

Air conditioners generally fall into four distinct categories, based primarily on
capacity or application:
• small self-contained air conditioners (window-mounted and through-the-wall
air conditioners)
• non-ducted split residential and commercial air conditioners
• ducted, split residential air conditioners
• ducted commercial split, multi-split and packaged air conditioners.
In each of these categories, the term “air conditioner” includes systems that directly
cool or heat the conditioned air.

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2. TYPES OF REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS(3/61)


b. Air-to-Air Air Conditioners And Heat Pumps

Small, Self-Contained Air Conditioners


• Window-mounted, portable, and through-the-wall
• Capacities of 1-10.5 kW
• Average charge size of 0.7 kg
• Designed to cool a single space

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b. Air-to-Air Air Conditioners And Heat Pumps

Non-Ducted (or Duct-Free) Split Residential Air Conditioners


• Compressor/heat exchanger units installed outside the space to be cooled/heated
• Refrigerant piping connects it to the evaporator inside the conditioned space.
• Capacities: 2-20 kW for a mini-split (single evaporator)
4.5-135 kW for a multi-split system
• Charge sizes of 0.5-90 kg
• Used in residential and light-commercial AC

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b. Air-to-Air Air Conditioners And Heat Pumps
Ducted, Split Residential Air Conditioners
• A condensing unit is placed outside the conditioned space.
• Pipes connect the unit to an evaporator installed with a duct system.
• Duct supplies cooled/heated air to each room or zone
• Used primarily in developed countries, especially in North America
• Capacities of 5–17.5 kW
• Charge sizes of 1–6 kg

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b. Air-to-Air Air Conditioners And Heat Pumps

Ducted, Commercial, Split and Packaged Air Conditioners


• Split by matching an outdoor unit with an indoor air handler and HEX
• Packaged units which contain and integral blower and HEX
• Mounted on roofs or on the ground adjacent to buildings
• Can contain one or two compressors for medium sized commercial structures.
• Capacities typically range from 5-420 kW

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• Unitary AC equipment account for 8% of global HFC consumption.
• In the RAC sector, unitary AC accounts for 11% of consumption.
• This percentage is expected to increase as the transition from HCFCs to HFCs matures.
• An estimated 38% of HFC consumption in the unitary AC sector is in developing countries.

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MODULE 2

Assignment 1:

An air refrigeration open system operating between 100 KPa and 1 MPa is required to
produce a cooling effect of 2000 kJ/min.
Temperature of the air leaving the cold chamber is -5°C and at leaving the cooler is
30°C. Neglect losses and clearance in the compressor and expander.
Determine:
i. mass of air circulated per min
ii. compressor work, expander work, cycle work
iii. COP and power in kW required.

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps
• Heat pumps are able to upgrade heat from a lower temperature to a higher
temperature level.
• The heat is used for space heating, service water heating, and manufacturing process
heating.
• The heat sources are generally ambient air, water or ground-source heat.
• The heat sink can be air, water or a process fluid.

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

• The temperature difference between the source and sink has a direct impact on
the pressure difference, so the compressor must meet for a specific refrigerant.

• Heat pumps are in most applications an alternative to fossil fuel gas or oil
combustion boilers, often resulting in a significant reduction in CO 2 emission
and primary energy consumption.

• In 2012 the global air to water heat pump market increased by around 5.4 % to
1,37 million units.

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

• Heat pumps are classified by heat source (air, water, and ground) and heat sink (air,
water).
• Air-source heat pumps are equipped with air-to-refrigerant evaporator coils and
fans to obtain heat from the ambient air.
• Water-source heat pumps are equipped with water-to-refrigerant evaporators and
a water circulation pump to obtain the heat from a water source.
• Ground source heat pumps are generally equipped with a brine-to-refrigerant
evaporator and brine to ground tubes combined with a circulation pump or,
refrigerant-to-ground evaporator tubes to obtain heat from the ground.

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

• The tubes in the ground are installed horizontally one to a few meters below
ground level or installed in a vertical drilled hole, typically 50-150 m deep.
• Most heat pumps are driven by electric motors, but gas engine drives are also
used to a small extent. Heat pumps may also be thermally driven, using a sorption
or ejector concept.
• It is also possible to classify heat pumps by types depending on the usage:
1) Heat pump water heaters (HPWH)
2) Space heating heat pumps
3) Combined water and space heating heat pumps

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

1) Heat Pump Water Heaters (HPWH)


• HPWH are designed to heat domestic and other service hot water to temperatures
between 50 and 90 °C.

Source: 
www.ahrinet.org

• Stored hot water is supplied to each tapping point.


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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

The basic components of the heat pump unit are:


• a compressor driven by an electric motor or gas engine
• a condenser or a gas cooler for heating water
• an evaporator to absorb heat from the heat source
• refrigerant
• an expansion device
Source:
• a control unit. energy.gov/energysaver/heat-
pump-water-heaters

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

2) Space Heating Heat Pumps


• A space heating heat pump is optimized for comfort heating.
• Comfort heating heats the room by heating water for distribution to an air
handling unit, radiator or under floor panel.
• The required water temperature depends on the types of emitter:
• low temperature application ranging from 25 to 35°C for under
floor heating
• moderate temperature application such as air handling units around 45°C
• high temperature application such as radiant heating 55 to 60 °C
• very high temperature application, as high as 65 to 80 °C.
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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps
• A space heating heat pump using water for distribution consists of a heat pump
unit and often an additional heat exchanger unit and a water storage tank.
• The basic components of a heat pump space heating unit are similar to those of
heat pump water heaters.
• In most cases air source heat pumps are used for space heating.

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c. Water Heating Heat Pumps

3) Combined Space and Hot Water Heat Pumps


• Combined water heating and space heating heat pumps supply hot tap water and
provide space heating.
• In most combined space and water heating heat pumps configurations, a water
storage tank is used to store the domestic hot water and also to act as a small heat
buffer for the space heating function.
• In order to obtain high water temperatures at low outdoor ambient temperatures,
air to water heat pump systems can utilize a multistage compression system or a
cascade refrigerating system with different refrigerants for each stage in the
cascade.

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d. Commercial Refrigeration:
• Used by retail outlets for preparing, holding and displaying frozen and fresh food
and beverages for customer purchase.
• Two levels of temperature may imply the use of different refrigerants. Chilled food is
maintained in the range 1°C to 14°C, frozen products are kept at temperatures from
-12 °C to -18 °C. Usual evaporating temperatures are in the range of -30 °C to -40
°C.

12/28/2017 Source: contractingbusiness.com
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Commercial Refrigeration comprises three main types of equipment:
stand-alone equipment, condensing units and full supermarket systems.
Stand-alone equipment:
• Consists of systems where all the components are integrated
• This equipment is installed in small shops, train stations, schools, supermarkets
and corporate buildings.

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• Examples: ice cream freezers, beverage vending machines.


• These systems tend to be less energy efficient than the full supermarket
systems.
• Drawback: heat rejected to ambient air when placed indoors.

What should be then done??

The heat must be removed by the building air conditioning system when there is no
heating requirement.

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Condensing Units:
• Used with small commercial equipment.
• Comprise one or two compressors, a condenser and a receiver which are normally
located external to the sales area.
• The cooling equipment includes one or more display cases in the sales area and/or a
small cold room for food storage.
• Installed in specialized shops such as bakeries,
butchers and convenience stores in industrialized
countries, whilst in developing countries a typical
application is the larger food retailers.

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• Full supermarket systems can be categorized by whether refrigerant evaporation
occurs in the coolers, or whether a low temperature secondary heat transfer fluid
(HTF) that is cooled centrally is circulated in a closed loop to the display cabinets
and cold stores.

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• The first type is termed ‘direct expansion’ or direct system and the second
type is termed indirect system.
• Direct systems have one less thermal resistance and no separate fluid
pumping equipment, which gives them an inherent efficiency and cost
advantage.
• The HTF circulated in an indirect system normally gains sensible heat, but
may gain latent heat in the case of ice slurry or a volatile fluid like CO₂.

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Many different designs of full supermarket systems can be found.
Centralized systems consist of a central plant in the form of a series of compressors
and condenser(s) located in a machinery room or an outside location. This provides
refrigerant liquid or an HTF at the correct temperature levels to cabinets and cold
stores in other parts of the building.

Direct Centralized 
System

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• Centralized direct systems constitute by far the largest category in use in


supermarkets today.
• The size can vary from refrigerating capacities of about 20 kW to more than 1
MW.
• The centralized concept is flexible in order to utilize heat recovery when
needed.

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• Distributed Systems are characterized by having smaller compressors and


condensers.
• When the compressors are installed as small packs with roof-mounted, air-cooled
condensers, or as small packs, they are sometimes referred to as Close Coupled
Systems.
• They are direct systems that offer the advantages of low charge, multiple
compressors and circuits for part load efficiency and redundancy, as well as the
efficiency advantage of a direct system
• Hybrid Systems cover a range of possibilities where there is a combination of
types.

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• Some definitions of industrial refrigeration include food processing and cold
storage.
• The cooling/heating capacity varies from 25 kW to 30 MW.
• They are based on reciprocating, screw and centrifugal compressors, depending
on the capacity and application.
• Industrial refrigeration has mainly operated with ammonia (60−70%).

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• Industrial refrigeration systems are normally located in industrial areas with very
limited public access.
• Thus, ammonia is commonly used in many applications where the hazards of
toxicity and flammability are well understood and easily handled by competent
personnel.
• Hydrocarbons may be used as an alternative to ammonia within sectors handling
flammable fluids such as chemical processing.

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Applications:
Food processing:
• Chilling and freezing food during processing, but it can also be used to make
handling or processing easier.
• Example: meats are temporarily frozen to enable them to be sliced more thinly.
• There is a trade-off between the time required to complete freezing and the
operating efficiency. Running the system at very low temperature is less efficient but
results in a shorter freezing time.

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Cold storage
• Operation: at two temperature levels, frozen (well below 0 oC) and chilled (above
0oC).
• Frozen produce must be stored below -18oC.
• Some products require lower temperatures, for example ice-cream is stored
between -26oC and -29oC.

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Industrial Cooling in Buildings, Power Plant and IT Centers
• Some production processes require tight control of the surrounding temperature,
for example microchip production, paint spraying.
• These loads are relatively constant all year, and production output is affected if
the chilling plant is inoperative, so both the reliability and the efficiency of the
equipment are more important than for office air conditioning.

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• In some high density data centers and other IT cooling applications, heat loads
are too high to be handled by air- or water-based cooling systems.
• Fluids including R-744 have been used in direct systems.
• Typical loads for these applications may be up to 2 kW per m2 in comparison
to a typical office load of 40 W per m2.

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District Cooling

• In the Middle East, since the 1990’s, district cooling applications have become
common with the rapid rate of economic development in the Gulf area.

• Those applications serve office complexes, shopping malls, airports and call
centers.

• Most of these systems use vapor compression technology and predominantly


HCFC and HFC refrigerants.

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• In Egypt, natural gas fired absorption chillers are mostly used.


• The majority of systems are now using HCFC-123 or HFC-134a.

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Industrial Heat Pumps And Heat Recovery
• Many industrial processes including dairies, food factories and chemical processes
require large amounts of heat in addition to a cooling load.
• When the application is collecting and redirecting waste heat from a refrigerating
system it is called heat recovery.
• When it is performing a non-productive chilling process on a source of heat, it is a
heat pump.

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Leisure
• Uses: ice rinks, indoor ski-slopes, ice climbing walls, … .
• Many older ice rink systems used direct R-717.
• Some R-717 systems in Central Europe have been converted to R-744.

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f. Transport Refrigeration
• Delivery of chilled or frozen products by means of trucks, trailers, vans,
intermodal containers and boxes.
• The task of a transport refrigeration system is to keep the temperature constant
during transport.
• Typical modes of transport are road, rail, air and sea.
• The three top candidates in the container industry are R-744, HC and low-GWP
HFCs.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

Container Transport
• Refrigerated containers allow uninterrupted storage during transport.

• There are two main types of refrigerated containers:


• porthole containers
• integral containers.
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f. Transport Refrigeration

Container Transport
• Porthole containers are insulated containers with two front apertures and no
built-in refrigeration systems.
• The lack of a refrigeration unit allows such containers to have a larger internal
volume and payload than integral units.

Portholes (sealable openings) at 
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f. Transport Refrigeration
Container Transport
• On board, the inside of the container is supplied with cold air via the ship's
central cooling plant.
• Cold air is blown in at the bottom and the "warm" air is removed at the top.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

Container Transport
• Integral refrigerated containers are systems which have their own small
refrigeration unit of about 5 kW refrigeration capacity on board.

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f. Transport Refrigeration
Container Transport
• The refrigeration unit blows cold air into the container at the bottom.
• It is distributed via the gratings and rises upwards through the cargo.
• The air is then drawn off from the container's upper return air opening via the air
channel left clear beneath the container roof and cooled in the refrigeration unit.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

• The electrical power needed to drive the system is supplied from an external
power supply via an electrical connection.
• These systems typically use HFC-134a, R-404A and in some cases R-407C.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

Sea Transport and Fishing Vessels


• Refrigerated transport vessels, also called reefers, provide transportation for
perishable foodstuff at temperatures between -30°C and 16°C.

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f. Transport Refrigeration
Sea Transport and Fishing Vessels

• These vessels use HFC-134a, R-404A, R-507 and R-407C as well as ammonia as a
refrigerant.
• Two-thirds of the systems are direct systems with ≤ 5 tons of refrigerant/system and
the remaining are indirect with a charge < 1 ton of refrigerant.
• Specialized tankers are used to transport liquefied gases, in particular liquefied
petrol gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

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f. Transport Refrigeration
Road Transport
• Road transport refrigeration units are van, truck or trailer mounted systems.
• Some trailers are equipped to be mounted or have their main bodies mounted on
railroad systems, called swap bodies.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

Road Transport
• In a number of uses, those systems are of the discontinuous type, using
eutectic plates in closed systems or liquid nitrogen, liquid carbon dioxide or
solid carbon dioxide in open systems.
• These systems are frequently used in local frozen food distribution, for example,
delivery directly to the customer.
• The predominant technology in road transport is the mechanical vapor
compression cycle.
• The refrigerant typically chosen is HFC-134a for applications where only cooling is
needed, and predominantly R-404A and R-410A for freezing applications and
general-purpose refrigeration units.
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f. Transport Refrigeration

Railway Transport
• Refrigerated railway transport is used in North America, Europe, Asia and
Australia.
• The transport is carried out by using either refrigerated railcars, or refrigerated
containers or swap bodies.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

• Different technologies have been used in the past: Solid CO₂ as well as ice have
been used in discontinuous emissive systems.
• Mechanically-driven refrigeration systems have also been used and are now
the prime choice because of the typically long duration of trips, which makes
refilling of the emitted refrigerant in discontinuous emissive systems a challenge
for both logistical and cost reasons.
• Mechanically driven systems are equipped with diesel engines to supply the
necessary energy to the refrigeration unit.
• The lifetime of rail refrigeration systems is believed to be 8 to 10 years with a
running time of 1000 to 1200 hours per annum.

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f. Transport Refrigeration

Air Transport
• In order to provide constant low temperature during the flight,
containers to be loaded upon aircraft are provided with refrigeration systems.
• There are some battery powered mechanical refrigeration systems, while other more
commonly used systems are discontinuous with solid carbon dioxide or ice.

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g. Chillers

• Comfort air conditioning in large commercial buildings and building


complexes is commonly provided by chillers.
• Chillers also are used for process cooling in commercial and industrial facilities
such as data processing, communication centers and mining.
• Chillers commonly employ a vapor compression cycle using reciprocating,
scroll, screw, or turbo compressors.
• Heat typically is rejected through air-cooled or water-cooled heat exchangers.
• Chillers tend to stay in service for long periods in the range from 20 to 40
years.

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g. Chillers

To describe the environmental effects of chiller operation, Total Equivalent Warming


Impact (TEWI) or Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) methods are used.
Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI)
• TEWI is a measure of the global warming impact of equipment based on the
total related emissions of greenhouse gases during the operation of the
equipment and the disposal of the operating fluids at the end-of-life.
• TEWI takes into account both direct fugitive emissions, and indirect emissions.
• TEWI is measured in units of mass in kg of carbon dioxide equivalent and can
be evaluated in conjunction with seasonal profiles of temperatures and capacity.

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g. Chillers

Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP)


• LCCP is a concept that incorporates the TEWI considerations and additionally
includes direct and indirect greenhouse emissions from the manufacture of the
active substances.
• Active substances are components and the working fluids such as the
refrigerants.
• Both LCCP and TEWI include a measure of the efficiency of the product and give
a better indication than a simple GWP reference of what the greenhouse gas
emissions associated with the use of air-conditioning and refrigeration
equipment will be.

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g. Chillers

Types of Chillers
Mechanical Vapour Compression Chillers
• Vapour-compression chillers use either centrifugal or positive displacement
compressors.
• Water-cooled positive-displacement chillers below 700 kW employ direct-
expansion shell-and-tube evaporators with chilled water on the shell side, or
brazed plate evaporators.
• Chillers above 700 kW typically use flooded/pool-boiler type or spray evaporators
with the refrigerant on the shell side of the tubes.

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g. Chillers

Absorption Chillers
• Absorption chillers utilize heat provided by a fuel-fired burner, steam, or hot
water as the main energy source.
• Large absorption systems commonly use water and lithium bromide. Small
absorption chillers may use R-717 and water where water is the absorbent.
• Chillers with lithium bromide and water all are water-cooled where chillers using
R-717 and water can be water-cooled or air-cooled.
• Absorption chillers are identified by the number of heat input levels they employ
and whether they are direct-fired with a burning fuel, or use steam or hot water as
the heat source.

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g. Chillers

• Single-effect absorption applications are limited to sites that can utilize waste
heat in the form of recovered hot water or steam as the energy source. Other
sites include co-generation systems where waste engine heat or steam is
available.
• Double-effect machines have an additional heat recovery heat exchanger and
can be driven by hot water or steam, or can be direct-fired.
• Double-effect absorption chillers can have primary-energy-based efficiencies
that are 35-45% of those of vapor-compression systems.
• Triple-effect machines have been commercialized but are not used widely. A
fluid pair other than water/lithium bromide must be used in the high stage
generator.
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h. Vehicle Air Conditioning

• The dramatic increase of new vehicle fuel economy is reducing fossil CO₂
emissions and progressively helping to achieve road transport de-carbonization
implying the diffusion of hybrid and electric vehicles.
• This scenario influences the mobile air conditioning design and sizing, requiring
more efficient systems, additional functions and a deep integration with the rest
of the vehicle.

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h. Vehicle Air Conditioning

Stop & Start and Hybrid Vehicles


• The diffusion of vehicles able to carry out part of their mission with the
combustion engine off asks for new solutions for the air conditioning system to
guarantee the summer and winter thermal comfort in all the operational
conditions.
• The majority of these vehicles will have 12 V to 48 V electric energy sources
and only part of them will have higher voltage network while all will have an
additional on-board electric energy storage unit.
• This implies that only a small portion of the future vehicles will have an electric
compressor.

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2. TYPES OF REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS(60/61)


h. Vehicle Air Conditioning
Measures will be adopted to maintain the required comfort and guarantee the safety
performance:
• cooling energy storage unit based on phase change materials
• secondary loop system taking benefit from its thermal inertia to store cooling
power
• additional electric compressor, downsizing the belt-driven compressor
In synthesis, the evolution will produce a deeper integration of the on-board thermal
systems and the air conditioning will become part of it.

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2. TYPES OF REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS(61/61)


h. Vehicle Air Conditioning
Plug-In Hybrids and Battery-Driven Electric Vehicles
For Plug-in Hybrids (PHEV) and Battery-driven electric vehicles (BEV), vehicle air
conditioning systems for cooling as well as heat pump systems for heating need to
have very high energy efficiency.

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MODULE 2
Assignment 2:

Based on the previous information, you are required to prepare a report that
compares the different types of refrigeration systems, taking into consideration
the types of refrigerants used in each. You can suggest also some alternatives to
the refrigerants used if you consider them environmentally harmful.

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MODULE 2

• The conventionally used refrigeration systems have two main options to be


modified.
• The first option is to replace them by new equipment.
• The second options is represented by retrofitting the existing systems, by
using refrigerant substitutes. This option is taken if the option of replacing the
old equipment by new ones is not available.
• The following will be an overview of the new equipment technology, the
retrofitting technique and an introduction to the substitutes used.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR NEW


EQUIPMENT(1/64)

For Domestic Appliances:


HC-600a: HC-600a is the main energy-efficient and cost-competitive alternative.
When the safety requirements are met concerning flammability, HC-600a is the ideal
refrigerant for domestic refrigeration products, giving roughly 5 % higher efficiency
than HFC-134a while at the same time reducing noise level of the unit.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(2/64)

HFC-134a: HFC-134a is considered the predominant refrigerant for domestic


refrigeration.
There are no significant safety implications concerning its use.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(3/64)

HFC-1234yf: Its application can be considered as some way between the use of
HFC-134a and HC-600a, since the pressure and capacity are slightly lower than for
HFC-134a and it has lower flammability characteristics than HC-600a.
HFC-1234ze: This refrigerant is still in an early exploration phase. The same
considerations with respect to flammability as for HFC-1234yf hold. In addition,
compressor adaptations are required to match the reduced volumetric capacity
compared to HFC-134a.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR NEW


EQUIPMENT(4/64)
R-744: R-744 application implies an additional cost, which can be attributed
to the greater mass of materials necessary to achieve protection against the
high pressure level, this in particular for the compressor.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR NEW


EQUIPMENT(5/64)

Conversion of HFC-134a Domestic Refrigerators to Low GWP Alternatives


• Current industry dynamics include increasing migration from HFC-134a to lower
GWP alternatives.
• Commercial conversion to date has been restricted to HC-600a. European
production began conversion from HFC-134a to HC-600a in the early 2000’s.
• Initial conversions of automatic defrost refrigerators in Japan from HFC-134a to
HC-600a were discussed in 2006 (UNEP, 2006).

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR NEW


EQUIPMENT(6/64)
• This conversion, motivated by global warming considerations, has
progressed to include more than 90 % of refrigerator production in
Japan.
• Use of low GWP unsaturated HFC refrigerants will require successful
addressing of numerous application criteria including: thermal stability,
hermetic system chemical compatibilities, process fluid compatibilities,
contamination sensitivities, etc., in addition to cost implications.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR NEW


EQUIPMENT(7/64)
• Technologies to accomplish conversions are readily available.
• The rate of conversion will be influenced by product cost to maintain product safety
with introduction of flammable refrigerants.
• Premium costs are for modified electrical components.

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New Production Refrigerant Conversion Trend (Source: UNEP)
MODULE 2

3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(8/64)

Alternatives for Tumble Dryers


• These dryers typically use HFC-134a as a refrigerant.
• Products using R-407C and HC-290 are also being placed on the market.
• Alternative low GWP refrigerant solutions have not yet been introduced in the
market, but are being explored.
• This includes R-744, hydrocarbons and low GWP HFCs.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(9/64)

Low GWP refrigerants currently explored are:


R-744 (CO2): The high temperature glide at the gas cooler side can effectively result
in an efficient drying process and possibly higher air exit temperatures than
possible with subcritical refrigerants. High costs of some components and the
probable need of an effective intercooler in order to reduce gas exit temperatures
are the challenges currently to be faced.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(10/64)

Hydrocarbons: Safety hazards due to the refrigerant flammability need careful


evaluation as the laundry dryers pose additional risks compared to domestic
refrigeration due to the high temperatures involved, the presence of dry textile
materials, mechanically moving objects (drum, motor etc.) and the presence of static
charges.

Low GWP HFCs: Due to the similar characteristics as HFC-134a, this category may
offer potential candidates. However, their flammability results in similar safety
hazards as listed for the hydrocarbons, though some of these hazards may be easier
to deal with due to the reduced flammability characteristic.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(11/64)

Not-in-kind Alternative Technologies


• Alternative refrigeration technologies for domestic refrigeration continue to be
pursued for applications with unique drivers such as very low noise, portability or
no access to the electrical energy distribution network.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(12/64)
• Absorption refrigeration equipment have been used in hotel mini-bar units
due to low noise levels for many years.
• Thermoelectric technologies are used for portable refrigerated chests in
applications such as medical transport.
• Magnetic refrigeration does not use refrigerant and employs an active
magnetic regenerator, comprising magneto-caloric materials exposed to an
intermittent magnetic field.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR NEW


EQUIPMENT(13/64)

Energy Efficiency Improvement Technologies for Domestic Refrigerators


• The energy efficiency of domestic refrigeration products is a topic of active
consumer and regulatory interest. Improving efficiency can be achieved through
increasing the efficiency of the vapor compression cycle components.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(14/64)

Compressors:
• Improved efficiency compressor configurations are broadly available.
• Use of lower viscosity oil reduces compressor drag losses.
• Reduction of losses during the compression process (valves, dampers, etc.).
• Increased use of electronically commutated variable speed motors will
reduce inertial and cycle losses.
• Use of high efficiency linear motors with variable capacity to improve run
efficiency.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(15/64)
Evaporator and Condenser Fan Motors:
• ECM evaporator and condenser fan motors are available with significant energy
efficiency improvements versus the shaded pole motors historically used in these
applications.
Modified Control Technology and Defrost Algorithms:
• Application of electronic sensors and controls permits adaptive defrost control
versus fixed cycle-time control set for worst case conditions.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(16/64)

Modified Refrigeration System Configurations:


• Research continues on efficiency improvements from dual evaporator inter-
cooled systems for two-compartment refrigerator-freezers.
Product Energy Efficiency Improvement Technologies For Tumble Dryers
• The inclusion of a heat pump on itself is a major energy saving technology
compared to conventional laundry dryers.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(17/64)
For Commercial Refrigeration:
Stand-alone equipment
• Bottle coolers: Hydrocarbon bottle coolers showed 28% reduced energy
consumption compared to HFC-134a bottle coolers, and for CO2 12% energy
consumption reduction.
• The choice of HC-290 is made by several European
companies manufacturing those bottle coolers, while
CO2 is preferred by others, based on a different
perception of safety risks.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(18/64)
• Ice-cream cabinets: R-404A and HFC-134a are the refrigerants used in ice-
cream cabinets and are progressively being replaced with HC-290 by large food
companies.
• Water coolers: Many companies have switched from HFC-134a to isobutane
(HC-600a).

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Characteristics to Alternatives to ODS
MODULE 2

3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(19/64)

• Vending machines: High-efficiency CO2 cassettes have been developed by a


Japanese company.
• The CO2 technology is compact and has passed the tests of energy efficiency
defined by soft drink companies.
• HC-290 vending machines have been
developed to perform satisfactorily from
an energy point of view.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(20/64)

Condensing Unit Systems


• Replacement HFC blends: For HCFC-22 replacement, a number of refrigerant
blends are proposed, such as R-407A and R-449A.
• Their GWPs are ranging from about 1000 to 1700. They are designed to replace
HCFC-22 or R-404A.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(21/64)

• CO2:New carbon dioxide-based condensing units are sold in Northern Europe


and Japan.
• R-744 condensing units require a double-stage design if high ambient
temperatures occur frequently.
• The additional cost for a double-stage system is significant compared to usual
HFC reference condensing units.
• Hydrocarbons: Several hundred indirect condensing units using HC-290 or HC-
1270 are operating in Europe with good energy efficiency.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(22/64)
Centralized Direct Systems:

• HFCs: The use of R-404A is the major option in Europe in low temperature and in
medium range temperature refrigeration systems.
• Energy efficiency gains are significant. For medium temperature, HFC-134a is also
used.
• R-407C has been tested in a number of cases, but is not considered a major option.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(23/64)
• CO₂: Two types of refrigerating CO₂ systems are on the market:
- Direct systems using only CO₂ with a trans critical cycle both for low and medium
temperatures.

12/28/2017 Schematic of a Trans critical CO₂ Refrigeration System 91


Source: www.bdonline.co.uk
MODULE 2
3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR
NEW EQUIPMENT(24/64)
-Cascade systems: with CO₂ at the low temperature stage associated with
ammonia or other refrigerant (for example R-404A) at the medium temperature
stage.

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Source: www.bdonline.co.uk
MODULE 2

3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(25/64)

Centralized Indirect Systems:

• HFCs: In a number of countries, hundreds of indirect refrigeration systems have


been installed using HFCs as primary refrigerant (R-404A and R-507A).
• Ammonia and HCs: HC-1270 (propylene) has been chosen by some European
companies, with the use of a compressor designed for
HCFC-22.
• Changes shall be made for the lubricant, generally higher viscosity grade is chosen,
due to high solubility of HCs in lubricants.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(26/64)

• CO₂: CO₂ can be used either as usual Heat Transfer Fluid without phase change
or it can evaporate partially in the display case evaporators, then condense in
the primary heat exchanger, and so CO₂ is used as a vapor-liquid Heat Transfer
Fluid.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(27/64)

For Industrial System:


• Hydrofluorocarbons: When the first HFC refrigerants, particularly HFC-134a,
introduced in the late 1980s, there was no obvious successor to the most
common CFC blend in the industrial market, R-502.
• When it became clear that R-502 could no longer be used, because it
contained CFC-115, most system designers used R-717.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(28/64)

• Saturated: Saturated HFC include fluids such as HFC-134a and

HFC-125 and blends of fluids, mixed to provide specific advantages

for particular applications.

• A trial system using unsaturated HFC-1234ze(E) as an alternative to HFC-134a in


district heating has been tested in Norway.

• Hydrocarbons: HC- 290 is generally similar in performance to

HCFC-22 and R-717 in terms of operating temperatures and pressures, and requires
similarly
12/28/2017 sized compressors. 96
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(29/64)

R-717 (Ammonia)
• R-717 is by far the most common refrigerant used in industrial systems.
• R-717 is flammable in relatively high concentrations, but it is difficult to ignite and
as a result R-717 conflagrations are extremely rare.
• R-717 systems can be designed for very high efficiency, particularly with higher
condensing temperatures.
• R-717 also produces relatively high heat transfer coefficients and requires a low
mass flow due to its high latent heat.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(30/64)

• R-744: R-744 is particularly suitable for use in freezer systems because it is liquid at
positive pressure down to -56 ° C.
• In slightly higher temperature applications, such as cold storage, R-744 cascade
systems are likely to be slightly less efficient than two-stage R-717.
• In higher temperature applications, like IT cooling, R-744 is attractive as an
alternative to chilled water because it is electrically non-conductive, does not cause
fabric damage in the event of a small leak and enables smaller heat exchangers to
be used.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(31/64)

• R-718 (Water): In general, R-718 is not suitable for most industrial applications
because despite the very high latent heat, the swept volume required for a
typical cooling duty is extremely high.
• Absorption: Absorption systems using aqua-ammonia can be used for low
temperature applications, easily reaching cold storage temperatures. This is
because the ammonia is used as the refrigerant, with water as the absorbent.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(32/64)

For Transport Refrigeration


Intermodal containers and road vehicles
• Hydrocarbons: While hydrocarbons offer superior thermodynamic properties, the
possible leakage of the refrigerant present a safety challenge, since these
refrigerants are flammable.
• Refrigeration units with direct expansion using HC-290 and HC-1270 have been
tested to date in a small number of trucks in the UK and Germany.
• In summary, specific research on the use of flammable refrigerants in transport
refrigeration should continue but their use would require the implementation of
safety.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(33/64)

For Transport Refrigeration


Intermodal containers and road vehicles
• R-744: R-744 is a promising alternative and its widespread use in transport
refrigeration can exhibit efficiencies comparable to the efficiencies that are
obtained at present from systems using HFC refrigerants.
• HFC: Refrigerant manufacturers are developing low-GWP HFC alternatives of which
several have the potential to match the cooling capacity, power consumption and
pull-down expected from today’s standard R-404A or HFC-134a systems.
• The flammability of these refrigerants is one of the major concerns for their use in
transport refrigeration.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(34/64)

For Transport Refrigeration


Intermodal containers and road vehicles
• Cryogenic systems:
• Liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide open cooling systems entail low noise
levels and low emissions of air pollutant due to the elimination of diesel
powered refrigeration.
• Technologies currently under development include systems for recovering
mechanical energy from the expansion of liquid nitrogen, leading to a
potentially low-GWP nitrogen economy.
• Use of cryogenics systems will continue to be determined by the availability of
liquefied gas charging stations.
• Where available, cryogenic systems can provide an alternative to traditional
diesel powered trucks and trailers on a case by case basis.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(35/64)

For Transport Refrigeration


Intermodal containers and road vehicles
• Eutectic systems:
• Eutectics will continue to be an important solution in developing countries.
• Eutectic systems generally require the use of a refrigerant to “freeze” the
eutectic.
• Some applications use an external system to freeze the eutectic, and the vehicle can
be regarded as “refrigerant free”.
• Technology in eutectics is moving ahead, and some manufacturers are developing
new “phase change” materials that offer high capacity/weight ratio.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(36/64)

For Transport Refrigeration


• Vessels
• HFC-134a has been used in new vessels for provision refrigeration. New ships
may also use R-407C or R-407F for AC.
• R-744 in cascade with R-717 is used for freezing down to -50 °C (mainly with
fish as the cargo).
• Large industrial systems can use R-717 or R-744.
• R-717 systems are limited to ships that do not carry passengers but
professional crew only and ships with a relatively high refrigeration capacity.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(37/64)
For Transport Refrigeration
• Vessels
• R-744 Refrigerated Sea Water (RSW) systems have been developed.
• In 2014, a large manufacturer launched a 50 Hz water-cooled centrifugal chiller
that utilizes HCFC- 1233zd(E) as an alternate technology to HFC-134a.
• For commercial vessels and for the off-shore business there is a potential for
HC-290 to be a substitute for HCFCs and HFC.
• HC-290 can be used for air conditioning as well as for provision plants.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(38/64)

For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps


• HFC-134a: It has not seen broad use yet because manufacturers have been able
to develop substantially lower cost air-cooled AC systems using HFC blends such as
R-407C and R-410A.
• R-744: R-744 has a low critical temperature, which results in significant efficiency
losses when applied at the typical indoor and outdoor air temperatures.
• R-744 air conditioning systems typically operate above the critical temperature of R-
744 during heat rejection.
• Air-cooled R-744 air conditioners are available in capacities from about 3 to 300 kW.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(39/64)

For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps


• R-407C: It has been used as a transitional refrigerant in equipment originally
designed for HCFC-22.
• There are currently R-407C air conditioning products available in Europe, Japan
and other parts of Asia and some manufactures in the Middle East where
ambient temperatures can be high.
• R-410A: R-410A can replace HCFC-22 in new equipment production, since the
operating pressures are around 50-60% higher than HCFC-22.
• Due to its thermo physical properties, the design of R-410A units can be more
compact and can have better performance in inverter type air conditioner than
HCFC-22.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(40/64)

For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps


• HFC-32: HFC-32 is seen as a replacement for R-410A due to its medium GWP and
slightly higher capacity and similar efficiency.
• Due to lower density, the specific refrigerant charge is around 10-20% less.
• R-410A systems can be redesigned for HFC-32 with modifications and with
additional safety considerations given its class 2L flammability.
• HFC-152a: It has performance characteristics similar to HFC-134a as well as 10%
lower vapor pressure and volumetric refrigeration capacity.
• Application of HFC-152a demands that systems must be designed, constructed
and installed with due consideration of its class 2 flammability.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(41/64)
For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps
• HFC-161: It is being evaluated as a good replacement in AC systems.
• It is flammable and therefore systems have to be designed, constructed and
installed accordingly, as well as due consideration to reclaim and recovery
requirements during servicing and at end of life.
• HFC-1234yf: It has a much lower volumetric refrigerating capacity and cannot be
used as a direct replacement.
• Additional design changes include increased heat exchanger areas and larger
diameter interconnecting tubing.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(42/64)

For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps


• HC-290: HC systems are commercially available in low charge AC applications, such
as small split, window and portable air conditioners.
• HC-290 has performance characteristics which tend to yield higher energy efficiency
and slightly lower cooling and heating capacity.
• HC-1270: HC-1270 has favorable characteristics from the point of view of both
thermodynamic and transport properties, but is a class 3 flammable refrigerant.
• The obstacles and flammability risk for use of HC-1270 in air conditioners are similar
to those of HC-290.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(43/64)

For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps


• R-446A and R-447A: The blends R-446A and R-447A have similar pressure and
capacity characteristics to R-410A and are feasible for use in most types of AC.
• Since they have class 2L flammability, the maximum charge is constrained for
larger capacity systems.
• Both R-446A and R-447A have higher critical temperature compared to R-410A
which enables them to have a higher efficiency at high ambient temperature.
R-444B
Use of the R-444B is feasible in split ACs where R-407C is already used.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(44/64)
Water Heating Heat Pumps
HFC-134a and HFC blends R-407C, R-417A and R-410A
• HFC-134a, R-407C and R-410A are used widely in heat pump systems and are well
commercialized globally.
• R-417A is used in heat pump application in existing systems as well as in new
equipment.
• In Japan R-410A is used and HFC-134a and R-410A are used in Canada and USA.
• The use of R-407C is declining in favor of the higher efficiency of R-410A and
lower system cost.
• R-417A has been used by some manufactures for heat pump water heaters and
has demonstrated its effectiveness at higher temperatures.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(45/64)
Water Heating Heat Pumps
• HFC-32: HFC-32 has a higher operating efficiency than R-410A.
• It has better heat transfer and transport properties than R-410A due to lower
molar mass.
• HFC-1234yf and other low-GWP HFC blends:
• HFC-1234yf is similar in thermo physical properties to HFC-134a.
• Blends with HFC-32 or HFC-125 approach the properties of HCFC-22 or R-
410A, but result in a higher GWP than pure HFC-1234yf.
• The heat transfer is expected to be lower than for R-410A systems because of
its lower saturation pressure.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(46/64)

Water Heating Heat Pumps


• R-744 (carbon dioxide)
• R-744 operates at very high pressures; approximately 3.5 times higher than R-
410A.
• This is an advantage enabling more compact system designs.
• The low critical temperature of R-744 results in trans-critical operation. R-744
refrigerant has been used primarily in storage type heat pump water heater
applications.
• For commercial buildings with combined radiator and air heating systems, R-
744 is a very promising refrigerant requirements.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(47/64)

Water Heating Heat Pumps


• R-744 (carbon dioxide)
• R-744 as refrigerant enables domestic water heating up to temperatures as
high as 90 ºC without use of an auxiliary electrical heater.
• R-744 may give a high performance when it is used with low temperature
sources and high temperature sinks with a certain temperature difference
between inlet and outlet water temperature.
• This makes it well suited for use in storage type heat pump water heaters in
which low temperature inlet water is heated to a high temperature for thermal
storage of domestic hot water.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(48/64)

Water Heating Heat Pumps


• Hydrocarbons: Hydrocarbons include three main refrigerants, HC-290 (propane),
HC-1270 (propene) and HC-600a (iso-butane).
• The efficiency of HC-290 and HC-1270 in heat pumps is known to be good.
• The main barriers are related to the safety.
• R-717 (Ammonia): R-717 is used mainly for large capacity systems.
• It has also been used in a small number of reversible heat pumps with very
good energy efficiency.
• The main barriers are related to safety aspects during the life cycle of the
equipment.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(49/64)
For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
• Fluorinated refrigerants
Options to replace HFC-134a in new chillers
• HFC-134a is used in positive displacement chillers and centrifugal chillers.
• Heat exchangers with refrigerants on the shell side vs. inside the tubes and plate
heat exchangers with refrigerant inside differ in their sensitivity to temperature glide.
• There are a number of A1 refrigerant candidates with low glide and capacities close
to HFC-134a with GWPs around 600. Candidates with low GWP (150 or less) all are in
safety classes A2L or A3.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(50/64)
For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
Options to replace R-410A in new chillers
• R-410A is used primarily in positive-displacement water-cooled and air-cooled
chillers.
• Other alternatives are blends that have similar or lower cooling capacities than R-
410A.
• Several of the blends have temperature glides of 5.6 K or less.
• All of the alternatives have higher estimated COPs than R-410A.
• None of the alternatives have a GWP <150.
• All of the alternatives are in the A2L safety class.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(51/64)

For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
Options to replace HCFC-22 in new chillers
• HCFC-22 was phased out in 2012 for use in new equipment in developed countries.
• The zeotropic mixture R-407C served as a transition refrigerant.
• It allowed manufacturers to offer chillers with a zero ODP refrigerant by making
modest changes in their HCFC-22 products.
• The low-GWP alternatives for HCFC-22 include five A1 refrigerants. Three others are
A2L refrigerants.
• The remaining candidates are A3, or in the case of R-717, B2L.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(52/64)

For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
Refrigerant options for new centrifugal chillers
• Centrifugal compressors are the most efficient technology in large units, those
exceeding 1700 kW capacity.
• HFC-134a is a popular choice for large centrifugal chillers.
• HCFC-123 and HFC-245fa have high thermodynamic efficiency and operate at
lower pressure levels and higher volumetric flow rates than HFC-134a.
• HFC-245fa is an HFC which has found limited use in centrifugal chillers and has
operating pressures higher than for HCFC-123 but lower than for HFC-134a.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(53/64)
For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
• Non-fluorinated refrigerants
• R-717
• R-717 chillers are available with open drive screw compressors in the
capacity range 100-7000 kW.
• R-717 chillers are manufactured in small quantities compared to HFC
chillers of similar capacity.
• Different materials of construction are used because R-717 causes rapid
corrosion of copper.
• Plate-and-frame steel heat exchangers are common in R-717 systems.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(54/64)

For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
• Hydrocarbons
• Hydrocarbon refrigerants are flammable and are classified A3.
• HC-290 is used in chillers in AC and industrial applications.
• Some Article 5 countries are applying HC chillers to large space cooling
needs.
• The current market for hydrocarbon chillers is larger than for R-717 chillers.
• Chillers employing HC refrigerants are higher in cost than HFC chillers.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(55/64)

For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
• R-744
• R-744 air-cooled chillers cooling capacities vary from 40 to 500 kW.
• At 15°C or less ambient temperature, systems can be equivalent in energy
efficiencay with those employing HFCs, R-717, or HCs.
• R-744 chillers are less attractive at higher ambient temperatures due
to decreasing efficiency with increasing ambient temperature.
• R-744 chillers offer the advantage of being able to use waste heat to raise water
to higher temperatures with higher efficiency than other refrigerants.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(56/64)

For Chillers
Options for New Vapour Compression Chillers
• R-718
• A product was announced in 2014 using water as the refrigerant.
• Applications for water as a refrigerant can chill water or produce an ice slurry by
direct evaporation from a pool of water.
• R-718 systems carry a cost premium above conventional systems associated with
the large physical size of water vapor chillers and the complexity of the compressor
technology.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(57/64)

For Chillers
• Alternatives to Mechanical Compression Systems (Absorption and
Adsorption Chiller)
• Absorption water chillers are a viable alternative to the vapor-compression
cycle for some installations.
• Adsorption chillers using water and zeolite also are an alternative.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(58/64)

For Vehicle Air Conditioning


Passenger Car and Light Truck Air Conditioning
• Improved HFC-134a Systems
• With the introduction of the credit system in the USA, and also upcoming
legislation in Europe, more vehicle OEMs are introducing technologies to
reduce energy consumption with HFC-134a refrigerants.
• Many efficiency-improving technologies are now being used in current
production HFC-134a systems, for example, internal heat exchangers, oil
separators in compressors, increased use of externally controlled
compressors, etc.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(59/64)

For Vehicle Air Conditioning


Passenger Car and Light Truck Air Conditioning
• HFC-1234yf Systems
• HFC-1234yf systems are able to reach the same system performance and
fuel efficiency as HFC-134a system if they use either an internal heat
exchanger.
• HFC-1234yf is designated as an A2L refrigerant, but exhibits a lower
burning velocity than other flammable refrigerants designated as class 2 or
3 flammability refrigerants.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(60/64)
For Vehicle Air Conditioning
• Passenger Car and Light Truck Air Conditioning
Carbon Dioxide (R-744) Systems
• R-744 refrigerant charge amounts are typically reduced by 20-30% as
compared to HFC-134a systems.
• R-744, with appropriate system design and control, has been shown to be
comparable to HFC-134a systems with respect to cooling performance and
total equivalent CO2 emissions.
• R-744 has the potential to be used as working fluid in future car Organic
Rankine Cycles which could help improve the overall fuel efficiency of
vehicles.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(61/64)

For Vehicle Air Conditioning


• Passenger Car and Light Truck Air Conditioning
• HFC-152a Systems
• HFC-152a would require additional safety systems.
• Refrigerant charge amounts in a direct expansion system could be reduced by
25-30% in mass as compared to HFC-134a and with a secondary loop system,
typically 50%.
• Prototype HFC-152a MACs and prototype vehicles using them have been
demonstrated in the past years.
• The obstacles to the implementation due to the additional cost, weight increases
and size constraints are compensated by the advantages in case of Stop & Start.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(62/64)
For Vehicle Air Conditioning
Passenger Car and Light Truck Air Conditioning
• Unsaturated Fluorinated Hydrocarbons and Blends containing Unsaturated
Fluorinated Hydrocarbons
• In addition to HFC-1234yf, some zeotropic blends are still considered as
possible candidates in vehicle air conditioning systems by many researchers.
• Two mildly flammable blends were introduced by a large chemical company,
which has a history that traces its roots to HFC-134a and other fluorochemical
production in England.
• R-445A would be the preferred blend because of its lower potential
flammability than HFC-1234yf.
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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(63/64)

For Vehicle Air Conditioning


Passenger Car and Light Truck Air Conditioning
• Hydrocarbons and Blends Containing Hydrocarbons
• HC-blends present suitable thermodynamic properties for the vapor compression
cycle with high energy efficiency
• HCs are so far not seen by the largest part of vehicle manufacturers as replacement
fluids for mass-produced AC systems due to safety concerns.
• Hydrocarbons have the potential to be used as working fluid in future car Organic
Rankin Cycles which could help improve the overall fuel efficiency of cars.

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3. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY: OPTIONS FOR


NEW EQUIPMENT(64/64)

For Vehicle Air Conditioning


Bus and Rail Air Conditioning
• Today, most buses have the entire air-conditioning system mounted in the
roof, except for the compressor, which is driven from the vehicle engine.
• The predominant refrigerant used in new buses and coaches is HFC-134a.
• The air conditioning units for rail cars use HFC-134a and R-407C in about
equal share. A small fraction of rail cars use R-410A.
• In China, heat pump systems are used for thousands of electric buses, which
utilize the refrigerant blends R-407C and

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4. SUBSTITUTES AND PROPERTIES (1/2)


The following points should be considered when selecting a substitute refrigerant:
• It is important for substitute refrigerants to operate at pressures similar to the
original refrigerant.
• Refrigerants with similar boiling points produce similar refrigeration effect with a
given compressor.
• It is desirable for the substitute refrigerant to be able to transfer as much heat as the
original refrigerant.
• The refrigerant must be compatible with these materials and must not have an
adverse impact upon any materials in the system.

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4. SUBSTITUTES AND PROPERTIES (2/2)

• The substitute refrigerant must also be compatible with gasket materials.


• The lubricant should be selected such it is compatible with both the
substitute refrigerant, motor materials and gasket materials.
• A denser refrigerant will need a larger liquid line to accommodate the
greater flow rate without an increase in the pressure drop.
• Cost of manufacture
• Toxicity and flammability
• Environmental Impact

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Assignment 3:

You are required to draw the following refrigeration cycle on a p-h diagram.

Evaporating Pressure Condensing Pressure Subcool Superheat


0.296 MPa 1.192 MPa 5 5

Read out from the diagram the specific volume and specific enthalpies.
Prepare a report that shows the sequence of solution.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (1/15)

For Residential Air Conditioning/Domestic Refrigeration


• Refrigerants and blends developed specifically for use as drop-in service
alternatives have had limited success.
• Field service conversion to non-ODS alternatives e.g. HFC-134a, and HFC and
HC blends, is not being done significantly.
• In some countries, the old units are bartered for new appliances using non-ODS
alternatives.
• In the case of conversion to HC blends, safety considerations require that any
flammable fluid accumulation within an enclosed volume must avoid the
potential within that volume for an electrical spark.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (2/15)

For Commercial Refrigeration


• Stand-Alone Equipment and Condensing Units:
Three options are available depending on projected remaining lifetime and costs:
• disposal of the old equipment and buy a new one with a non-ODS refrigerant.
• repair and recharge with the same refrigerant.
• repair and charge with a low ODP refrigerant or a non ODS.
When changing from CFC to HCFCs or HFCs in case of retrofit, the lubricant shall also
be changed and shall be compatible with the new refrigerant or refrigerant blends.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (3/15)
Centralized Systems:
In developed countries, supermarket equipment is partially or totally renewed
every 7 or 10 years, depending on countries. In Article 5 countries, the lifetime can
be longer, typically 15 years.
Conversion to HFC-134a:
The conversion to HFC-134a involves several steps:
• change of mineral oil to synthetic oil.
• evaluation of the expansion device and adjustment of the superheat in case of
thermostatic expansion valve.
• replacement of the filter dryer.
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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (4/15)

R-502 Retrofit:
• Due to lubricants, retrofits are mainly from R-502 to blends.
• Studies performed on energy consumption show that energy efficiency is at least
as good with these blends as with R-502.
• In some cases, a distinction may have to be made between R-502 retrofit in low
temperature systems and medium temperature systems. Based on the
refrigerant cost, for medium temperature systems it may be worth changing the
expansion valve. This option is not typical.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (5/15)

HCFC-22 Retrofit:
• It is technically feasible to change from HCFC-22 to R-404A or R-407C.
• Oil has to be changed and the system has to be flushed.
• Energy efficiency losses associated with this kind of retrofit are typically in the
range of 5 to 10%.
• New HFC blends with small amount of HCs (typically 3%) have been developed in
order to make easy retrofit from HCFCs to HFCs without change of the lubricant
type.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (6/15)
For Industrial Refrigeration:

Conversion To HFC Blends:

• There are numerous blends for the replacement of HCFC-22 in DX systems, but
there is none that replicates the pressure temperature relationship of HCFC-22.

• Where industrial systems are converted to a blend it may also be necessary to


change from mineral or alkyl benzene lubricant to a synthetic ester.

• For a large flooded system it might be appropriate to convert the compressors


and condensers to an HFC blend.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (7/15)
Conversion to R-744:
• The high operating pressure of R-744 systems makes it highly unlikely that an
existing HCFC-22 system could be converted to operate on R-744.

• It may even be possible to reuse the low pressure pipework and evaporators in the
system if they are suitably rated.
Conversion to hydrocarbon:
• Unlike R-744 and R-717, it is technically feasible to remove HCFC-22 from existing
systems and replace it with HC-290. However, this will not comply with safety codes
on the use of hydrocarbons.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (8/15)

Conversion to R-717:
• In a very few cases a pumped HCFC-22 plant has been converted to R-717.
• In some cases, the compressors and evaporative condensers are suitable for
either refrigerant, and pipework is probably welded steel in large applications.
• If the evaporators are copper tube then they need to be replaced.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (9/15)
For Transport Refrigeration
Road Equipment and Intermodal Containers
• The retrofit options include R-408A, R-402A, R-404A or R-507A which,
however, require a component change.
• Recent studies identified various non-flammable blends that offer different
combination of GWP, ease of retrofit, properties, performance and
consistency with R-404A.
• These blends are safe, they have GWP significantly lower than R-404A, and
in some cases they can be directly dropped into existing units.
• This makes them a likely solution for the R-404A installed population as well
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new systems. 144
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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (10/15)
For Transport Refrigeration
Vessels
• The most used refrigerant in new ships used to be HFC-134a but also R-410A
has been used frequently.
• For retrofit of existing AC systems, other HFC alternatives such as R-407C and R-
427A require modifications to the equipment to reach a reasonable efficiency.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (11/15)
For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps

Replacement Refrigerants Only


• They generally combine two or more HFC refrigerants with a small amount of HC,
which are added to the blend to enable the refrigerant to work with the
naphthenic mineral-oil-based and alkyl benzene lubricants.
Retrofit refrigerants
• R-407C has been demonstrated to be an acceptable retrofit refrigerant and has
seen widespread use in some regions with high ambient temperature.
• R-407C has a moderate glide so it can be serviced without replacing the entire
refrigerant charge with minimal impact on performance.
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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (12/15)

For Air to Air AC & Heat Pumps


Conversion to Flammable Refrigerants
• HC refrigerants such as HC-290, HC-1270 and blends including these as well as
HC-170 and R-E170 are being used as conversion replacements.
• However, this can create safety hazard because of the flammability of these
refrigerants.
• There are also some other mixtures with class 3 flammability being marketed,
which in addition to HCs also comprise R-E170 and HFC-152a.

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5. Retrofitting: Options for Existing


Systems (13/15)

For Water Heating Heat Pumps


• As for most water heating heat pumps there is no refrigerant field piping
involved the option to replace the total.
• For larger units located in places where the replacement of the total unit may be
difficult, sometimes the option is taken to replace components such as the
compressor, expansion device, gaskets, safety devices and oil.
• For that purpose manufacturers of the equipment sometimes provide special
retrofit packages.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (13/15)

For Chillers
Positive Displacement Chillers
• A positive displacement compressor can be applied to handle different refrigerants
and pressure ratios in a chiller.
• Despite this flexibility, there remain a number of issues in retrofitting positive
displacement chillers to operate with new refrigerants.
Centrifugal Chillers
Direct refrigerant substitution can be made only when the properties of the substitute
refrigerant are nearly the same as those of the refrigerant for which the equipment was
designed, or when the impeller speed and/or impeller geometry can be changed easily.

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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (14/15)
For Chillers
• Non-Vapor Compression Chiller Replacements: Absorption
• The replacement of a mechanical vapour compression system with an
absorption system saves a portion of the electric consumption of the
building.
• This reduces the capacity requirements for the transformer, electric
switchboards, and electric conduits.
• Provision has to be made for suitable gas piping and train when a natural gas
fired system is used.
• Absorption systems do not require anti-vibration mounting since they have
few moving parts.
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5. RETROFITTING: OPTIONS FOR EXISTING


SYSTEMS (15/15)
Hydrocarbon retrofits

• Retrofit to hydrocarbons is still occurring in various regions, particularly in


Australia and to some extent in North America even though vehicle OEMs and
some regulatory bodies do not approve of this process due to inadequate
safety mitigation

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Assignment 4:

For a factory building located in Beirut, suggest the most suitable air-
conditioning supply system for their:
a. offices
b. stores
c. workshop
State your reasons for the selected system and also state the most suitable heat
rejection system for the air conditioning system.

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• As mentioned before, it is noticed that lubricants interfere in many options when

talking about retrofitting of existing systems.

• In the following slides, we will be introducing more about the lubrication

technology and its functions, the selection and requirements of lubricants, their

properties, categories and applications.

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6. LUBRICATION (1/2)

a. Definition
• Lubrication is the process or technique employed to reduce friction between
surfaces by interposing a substance called a lubricant between them.
• With fluid lubricants, the applied load is either carried by pressure generated
within the liquid or by the liquid being pumped under pressure between the
surfaces.

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6. LUBRICATION (2/2)
b. Functions:
Lubricants perform the following key functions:
• Keep moving parts apart
• Reduce friction
• Transfer heat
• Carry away contaminants & debris
• Transmit power
• Protect against wear
• Prevent corrosion
• Seal for gases
• Stop the risk of smoke and fire of objects
• Prevent rust.
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7. SELECTION OF REFRIGERATION LUBRICANTS


(1/3)

From a technical standpoint, the lubricant selected for a refrigeration system must:
• be suitable for lubricating the type of compressor used in the refrigeration system
• have the appropriate miscibility and solubility characteristics with the refrigerant
fluid

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7. SELECTION OF REFRIGERATION LUBRICANTS (2/3)

For each refrigerant type, the table below shows compatible lubricant technology
choices:

Refrigerant Type Lubrication Technology


CFC and HCFC Mineral Naphthenic, Mineral Paraffinic, Polyalphaolefin
(PAO), Alkylbenzene (AB)
HFC Polyol Ester(POE)
Ammonia Mineral Naphthenic, Mineral Paraffinic, Polyalphaolefin
(PAO), Alkylbenzene (AB)
CO₂ PAO, Esters, Polyalkylene Glycol(PAG)
Hydrocarbon PAG, Mineral Naphthenic
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Source: Mobil Oils
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7. SELECTION OF REFRIGERATION LUBRICANTS


(3/3)
Three major types of compressors are predominantly used in industrial refrigeration
systems:
• Reciprocating compressors: the oil lubricates cylinders, connecting rods, journal
and thrust bearings, and maintains good sealing in compressing the refrigerant
• Screw compressors: the oil lubricates the screws and thrust bearings, maintains
good sealing, and cools down compressed gas
• Centrifugal compressors: the oil lubricates sliding, antifriction, and thrust
bearings as well as shaft packing and multipliers gears, provides proper sealing,
and in many cases cools the compressor parts.

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8. OIL LUBRICANTS PROPERTIES

The properties of a good refrigeration lubricant are:


• Low wax content
• Good thermal stability
• Good chemical stability
• Low pour point
• Good miscibility and solubility
• Low viscosity index

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9. OIL LUBRICANT CATEGORIES


Basically, there are six main categories of refrigeration lubricants:
• mineral oils (MO)
• alkyl benzene oils (AB)
• polyol ester oils (POE)
• poly alpha olefin oils (PAO)
• poly alkyl glycol oils (PAG)
Traditionally, CFC refrigerants have been used with mineral and alkyl benzene
oils for the lubrication of compressors. This is now undergoing change, with the
introduction of HFC refrigerants, which are immiscible with the traditional
mineral oils, and need the use of synthetic oils for miscibility and oil return.

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10. MINERAL OIL COMPOSITION (1/3)


Mineral compounds in refrigeration oils are grouped into the following structures:

•Paraffins: consist of both staright and branch chain saturated HC

•Naphthenes (cycloparaffins): saturated HC that mainly consist of cyclic or ring


structures

•Aromatics: comprised mainly of unsaturated cyclic HC

•Nonhydrocarbons

Paraffinic oils have a higher percentage of paraffinic wax that napthenic oils, which
result in high pour point, the temperature which the oil will flow under gravity

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10. MINERAL OIL COMPOSITION (2/3)

For refrigeration oils, the most important structural molecules are:


Saturates (or nonaromatics): composed of paraffins and/or naphthenes only.
Properties:
• Excellent chemical stability.
• Poor solubility with some refrigerants.
• Poor boundary lubricants (surface-to-surface contact lubrication).

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10. MINERAL OIL COMPOSITION (3/3)

Aromatics: composed of aromatics attached to paraffins and/or naphthenes.


Properties:
• More reactive than saturates
• Very good solubility with refrigerants
• Good boundary lubricating properties
Non-hydrocarbons : composed of S, N₂ or O₂ in addition to C and H₂.
Properties:
• Most reactive
• Good boundary lubricating properties

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11. COMPATIBILITY OF LUBRICANT WITH


REFRIGERANT FLUID (1/2)

Miscibility:
• Generally, large refrigerant systems are equipped with oil separators. In these
systems, it is desirable to use a lubricant that has low miscibility with the
refrigerant fluid.
• With systems not equipped with oil-separators, the lubricant carried over from
the compressor into the evaporator must be sufficiently miscible with the
refrigerant.
• If the lubricant separates in the evaporator, fluid gets trapped in the evaporator
and affects the system’s cooling capacity and efficiency.

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11. COMPATIBILITY OF LUBRICANT WITH


REFRIGERANT FLUID (2/2)
Solubility:
• Another important consideration for proper lubricant selection is to ensure that
the viscosity of the lubricant, after absorption of gaseous refrigerant at the high
compressor temperature, is sufficient for effective lubrication of the compressor.

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12. Synthetic Lubricants (1/3)

Synthetic Oil:

• It is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially made


(synthesized).
• Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically
modified petroleum components.
• Synthetic oil provides superior mechanical and chemical properties to those
found in traditional mineral oils.
• Example: aircraft jet engines require the use of synthetic oils, whereas
aircraft piston engines do not.
• Synthetic lubricants are also used in metal stamping to provide environmental
and other benefits when compared to conventional petroleum and animal fat
based products.

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12. SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS (2/3)

• The limited solubility of mineral oils with some refrigerants such as R-502, and the
lack of solubility in nonchlorinated fluorocarbon refrigerants, such as R-134a, has
led to the use of synthetic lubricants. In addition to that fluorocarbon lubricants
are expensive.
• The three synthetic lubricants of greatest use are:

Alkylbenzene: for R-502

• Good solubility with R-502

• Better high-temperature stability than mineral oils

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12. SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS (3/3)

Polyol Esters: for R-134a and R-32 blends


• Used with HFC refrigerants in all types of compressors
• High viscosity indices and very hygroscopic
• Should be stored in a sealed container
• Notice that if a refrigeration system has been empty for a long time because of
leakage of refrigerant, the POE lubricant must be changed by new one.
Polyglycols: for R-134a and R-32 blends
• Commonly used as lubricants in automotive AC systems using R-134a
• Excellent lubricity and low pour points
• Good low-temperature fluidity
• Require additives for chemical and thermal stability

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Assignment 5:

By the end of this module, you are required to prepare a report, discussing the
following:
• Compare the performance of the low GWP refrigerant with a
conventional/current refrigerant on stand-alone system and a split unit air
conditioning system, by using two different types of refrigerants for each, and
conclude with choosing the most efficient on according to the application
used in (by theory).

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REFERENCES:
• UNEP: 2014 REPORT OF THE REFRIGERATION, AIR CONDITIONING AND HEAT PUMPS
TECHNICAL OPTIONS COMMITTEE, 2014 ASSESSMENT
• UNEP: Manual for Refrigeration Servicing Technicians
• IPCC/TEAP Special Report: Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and the Global
Climate System: Chapter 4
• www.unep.org/ozonaction
• Ozone.unep.org

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End of MODULE 2

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