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Performance of Alternative Refrigerants for R12 and R134a in Automobile Air-Conditioners  

Baek, In-Cheol (Graduate School, Inha University)
Park, Ki-Jung (Graduate School, Inha University)
Shim, Yun-Bo (Graduate School, Inha University)
Jung, Dong-Soo (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering / v.19, no.5, 2007 , pp. 403-410 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this study, natural refrigerants and their mixtures that can supplement and replace R12 and R134a in automobile air-conditioners are studied. R134a is currently used as the refrigerant in new motor vehicle air conditioners, replacing the ozone depleting refrigerant R12. Although R134a has no ozone depletion potential, it has a relatively large global warming potential, approximately 1300 times that of $CO_2$ over a 100 year time horizon. For this reason, performance of natural refrigerants and their mixtures containing R152a, RE170 (Dimethylether, DME) and R600a (Isobutane) are measured under 2 different temperature conditions. They were tested in a refrigerating bench tester with an open type compressor. The test bench provided about 4 kW capacity and water and water/glycol mixture were employed as the secondary heat transfer fluids. Test results show that the coefficient of performance (COP) of these refrigerants is up to 21.55% higher than that of R12 in all temperature conditions. Overall, these fluids provide good performance with reasonable energy savings without any environmental problem and thus can be used as long term alternatives for automobile air-conditioners.
Keywords
Alternative refrigerant; Air conditioner; COP; Capacity;
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