Published Paper Details:

In India, nearly 90% of the refrigeration systems viz., domestic refrigerators, deep freezer units, food storage devices use R134a as the common working fluid. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of R134a is high of the order of 1300. Usage of R134a refrigerant causes continuous depletion of ozone layer and global warming effect. The Chloro fluoro carbon (CFC) substances not only damages the ozone layer of atmosphere, but also bring green house effect to earth and badly affect telluric environment and human health. The Montreal and Kyoto Protocol suggested minimizing the usage of green house gases along with hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) to use as refrigerants in refrigeration system. R134a is not miscible with the lubricant oil of the compressor unit. Some of the European countries have banned the usage of R134a as refrigerant in refrigerators. The focus of this investigation is to try out and establish a suitable alternative to the conventional R134a. The proposed eco-friendly refrigerant in this work is R152a which has an advantage of zero Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) and a significant reduced GWP value of 140 only. In this investigation three types of studies were carried out. The most commonly used commercial refrigerant R134a and the proven alternative R152a were blended and the new hybrid refrigerant was prepared and the corresponding performance of the system was investigated. The experimental results and analysis clearly indicate that there is a possibility of retrofitting the blend of R152a and R134a without any system modification. nanoadditive such as Al2O3 were blended with R152a refrigerant at 0.05% v, 0.1 % v and 0.15%v concentration were investigated. The compressor suction pressure, discharge pressure, vapour pressure, compressor input power, volumetric cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) were computed and analysed. An experimental test rig is designed and fabricated indigenously in the lab to carry out these investigations. Nano refrigerant was found to work safely and with system improvement.