Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Thermodynamic analysis of a lower-GWP and nonflammable alternative to R507A

  • Published:
Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To cope with the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gases, an environmentally friendly working fluid with low global warming potential (GWP) value was proposed to replace R507A which has a higher GWP value. This paper evaluated the thermodynamic properties and cycle performance of the alternative named RTB1. Firstly, the thermodynamic properties of RTB1 were investigated experimentally, including saturated vapor pressure and miscibility with polyol ester (POE) lubricating oil. The results showed that the saturated vapor pressure of RTB1 is 7.14% higher than that of R507A on average, and RTB1 has good miscibility with POE 32. Secondly, the flammability of RTB1 was tested by the flammability limits test system, and the experimental results showed that RTB1 was a non-flammable working fluid. Finally, the cycle performance of RTB1 and R507A under different operating conditions was compared. RTB1 is better than R507A in terms of cooling capacity per unit volume and coefficient of performance, however, the discharge temperature of RTB1 is higher than that of R507A. This work is of great significance to promote the elimination process of high-GWP working fluids and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig.8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

HCFCs:

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons

HFCs:

Hydrofluorocarbons

GWP:

Global warming potential

ODP:

Ozone depleting potential

COP:

Coefficient of performance

ASTM:

American Society of Testing and Materials

NIST:

National Institute of Standards and Technology

POE:

Polyolester

SH:

Superheating degree (K)

SC:

Subcooling degree (K)

T :

Temperature (K)

P :

Pressure (kPa)

\(\dot{Q}\) :

Heat transfer rate (kW)

T glide :

Temperature slip (K)

W c :

Compressor power consumption (kW)

\(\dot{m}_{{\text{r }}}\) :

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

H :

Specific enthalpy (kJ kg−1)

b:

Bubble point

d:

Dew point

c:

Compressor

0:

Evaporator

k:

Condenser

References

  1. Mohanraj M, Abraham JDAP. Environment friendly refrigerant options for automobile air conditioners: a review. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2022;147(1):47–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10286-w.

  2. AMI. Protecting our climate by reducing use of HFCs. In: The American innovation and manufacturing. 2020. https://www.epa.gov/climate-hfcs-reduction. Accessed 24 Jan 2023.

  3. Gao EY, Cui Q, Jing HQ, Zhang ZY, Zhang XS. A review of application status and replacement progress of refrigerants in the chinese cold chain industry. Int J Refrig. 2021;128:104–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2021.03.025.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Deymi-Dashtebayaz M, Maddah S, Goodarzi M, Maddah O. Investigation of the effect of using various HFC refrigerants in geothermal heat pump with residential heating applications. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2020;141(1):361–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-09539-5.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Arora A, Kaushik SC. Theoretical analysis of a vapour compression refrigeration system with R502, R404A and R507A. Int J Refrig. 2008;31(6):998–1005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2007.12.015.

  6. Llopis R, Torrella E, Cabello R, Sánchez D. Performance evaluation of R404A and R507A refrigerant mixtures in an experimental double-stage vapour compression plant. Appl Energy. 2010;87(5):1546–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.10.020.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Vaitkus L, Dagilis V. Analysis of alternatives to high GWP refrigerants for eutectic refrigerating systems. Int J Refrig. 2017;76:160–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2017.01.024.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Llopis R, Sánchez D, Cabello R, Catalán-Gil J, Nebot-Andrés L. Experimental analysis of R-450A and R-513A as replacements of R-134a and R-507A in a medium temperature commercial refrigeration system. Int J Refrig. 2017;84:52–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2017.08.022.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Siva Reddy V, Panwar NL, Kaushik SC. Exergetic analysis of a vapour compression refrigeration system with R134a, R143a, R152a, R404A, R407C, R410A, R502 and R507A. Clean Technol Environ Policy. 2012;14(1):47–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-011-0374-0.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang L, Yang Z, Zhai R, Lv ZJ, Zhang Y, Deng QJ. Flammable performance and experimental evaluation of a new blend as R404A lower-GWP alternative. Int J Refrig. 2022;135:113–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2021.12.019.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Yang Z, Liu HW, Wu X. Theoretical and experimental study of the inhibition and inert effect of HFC125, HFC227ea and HFC13I1 on the flammability of HFC32. Process Saf Environ Prot. 2012;90(4):311–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2011.09.009.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Prabakaran R, Lal DM, Kim SC. A state of art review on future low global warming potential refrigerants and performance augmentation methods for vapour compression based mobile air conditioning system. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11485-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Qian YJ, Zhao P, Tao CF, Meng S, Wei JJ, Cheng XZ. Experimental study on evaporation characteristics of lubricating oil/gasoline blended droplet. Exp Therm Fluid Sci. 2019;103:99–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2019.01.010.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Weise S, Wetzel M, Dietrich B, Wetzel T. Influence of fully miscible lubricating oil on the pressure drop during flow boiling of CO2 inside an enhanced tube. Exp Therm Fluid Sci. 2017;81:223–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2016.09.018.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Liu B, Yang Z, Zhang Y, Lv ZJ, Chen YB, Chen SY. Evaluation of a low-GWP and nonflammable blend as a new alternative for R134a in the heat pump system. Int J Refrig. 2022;143:1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2022.06.029.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Tian H, Wu MQ, Shu GQ, Liu YW, Wang XY. Experimental and theoretical study of flammability limits of hydrocarbon–co2 mixture. Int J Hydrogen Energy. 2017;42(49):29597–605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.10.053.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Zhang Y, Yang Z, Lv ZJ, Chen YB, He HX, Chen SY, et al. Research on the effect of flame retardants on the mildly flammable refrigerant ammonia. J Loss Prev Process Ind. 2022;77:104787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2022.104787.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Polikhronidi NG, Batyrova RG, Abdulagatov IM. Heat capacity of (ethanol + diamond) nanofluid near the critical point of base fluid (ethanol). J Therm Anal Calorim. 2019;135(2):1335–49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7475-5.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mota-Babiloni A, Navarro-Esbrí J, Barragán-Cervera Á, Molés F, Peris B. Analysis based on EU regulation no 517/2014 of new HFC/HFO mixtures as alternatives of high GWP refrigerants in refrigeration and HVAC systems. Int J Refrig. 2015;52:21–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2014.12.021.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Yu BB, Ouyang HS, Shi JY, Liu WC, Chen JP. Evaluation of low-GWP and mildly flammable mixtures as new alternatives for R410A in air-conditioning and heat pump system. Int J Refrig. 2021;121:95–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2020.09.018.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the State Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51936007)

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Low and Medium Grade Energy, MOE, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, People’s Republic of China

    Yong Zhang, Zhao Yang, Yubo Chen & Hongxia He

  2. Moon Environment Technology Co. Ltd, Yantai, 264002, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Zhang

Authors
  1. Yong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhao Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chao Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yubo Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hongxia He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YZ: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Data curation, Writing—original draft, Visualization. ZY: Conceptualization, Resources, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. CZ: Conceptualization, Writing—review & editing. YC: Methodology, Writing—review & editing. HH: Writing—review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhao Yang.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Y., Yang, Z., Zhang, C. et al. Thermodynamic analysis of a lower-GWP and nonflammable alternative to R507A. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 5613–5623 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12121-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12121-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation