Conference Year
2018
Keywords
Heat pump, Low GWP refrigerant, Refrigerant mixture, HFO
Abstract
Hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs) have been widely used as working fluids (refrigerants) in air-conditioning and refrigeration systems. At the 1997 Kyoto Conference (COP3), a worldwide agreement was obtained to regulate the production and use of HFCs exhibit high global warming potential (GWP). In the above situation, Hydro-fluoro Olefins (HFOs) having extremely low GWP values such as HFO-1234yf, HFO-1234ze(E), HFO-1123, has attracted attentions. In this study, the performance of heat pump cycle using low GWP refrigerant mixtures of HFC-32 and HFO-1123 is evaluated experimentally. The experimental system is a water heat source vapor compression cycle, mainly composed of an inverter-controlled & hermetic-type scroll compressor (cylinder volume: 11 cm3), an oil separator, a double-tube-type condenser (heat transfer tube; inner grooved , OD 9.53 mm, ID 7.53 mm, total length 7.2 m), a liquid receiver, a solenoid expansion valve, and a double-tube-type evaporator (heat transfer tube; inner grooved , OD 9.53 mm, ID 7.53 mm, total length 7.2 m). Tested compositions of mixtures of HFO-32/HFO-1123 are 58/42 mass% (GWP=393) and 42/58 mass% (GWP=285). These mixtures are tested for the heating and the cooling modes. In the heating mode, the heat sink water temperatures at the inlet and outlet of condenser are kept at 20 ˚C and 45 ˚C, respectively, and the heat source water temperatures at the inlet and outlet of evaporator are kept at 15 ˚C and 9 ˚C. Then, the heating load is varied from 1.6 kW to 2.6 kW. Similarly, in the cooling mode, the water temperature at the inlet and outlet are kept at 30 ˚C and 45 ˚C in condenser, and at 20 ˚C and 10 ˚C in evaporator. Then, the cooling load is varied from 1.4 kW to 2.4 kW. The conventional refrigerant R410A is also tested as the reference. In both modes of heating and cooling, the COP of HFO-32/HFO-1123 mixture (58/42 mass%) is almost the same as that of R410A, while the COP of HFO-32/HFO-1123 mixture (42/58 mass%) is a little lower than that of R410A. By analyzing the irreversible loss of the heat pump cycle based on the second low analysis, the losses of both mixtures in condenser and evaporator are slightly smaller than that of R410A, while the losses of both mixtures in compressor are slightly higher than that of R410A. This result reveals that tested mixtures of HFO-32/HFO-1123 are available to use as the alternative of R410A if the design of compressor and heat exchangers are optimized.