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Experimental investigation of a new ultra-low temperature refrigerant to replace R23 in an environmental test chamber.

Number: 2206

Author(s) : WINKLER T., COP M., BARTA R. B., HESSE U.

Summary

The EU F-Gas regulation from 2015 and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol from 2019 are examples of regulations showing the political will to reduce the use of substances with a high global warming potential (GWP) in refrigeration technology. In the EU, an additional CO2-quota for manufacturers and distributers of fluorinated substances promotes the transition towards low-GWP refrigerants. This trend then leads to uncertainty regarding the availability of high-GWP substances despite the applicability of certain exceptions to the aforementioned phase-out, such as ultra-low temperature applications (ULT) below -50 °C. Currently, R23 is one of the most common working fluids for ULT applications. Recent developments of new refrigerants such as R469A, R472A and R473A show ongoing research activities to replace the high-GWP refrigerant R23 (GWP = 12400), which have approximately 10% of the GWP of R23. The challenge with many ULT applications are their requirements of high system reliability, a wide temperature range and a limited assembly space, among others. The goal of this work was to investigate the system behavior of a ULT test chamber with an alternative refrigerant to R23. This paper presents the results of a retrofit of an environmental test chamber originally designed for use with R23 with the refrigerant R473A (GWP = 1800). Theoretical considerations indicate an elevated pressure level and a higher volumetric refrigeration capacity. The necessary modifications to the test chamber for use with R473A were assessed and implemented, and the experimental investigation focused on evaluating the temperature pull-down performance, the minimum temperature achieved in the chamber and the temperature stability at minimum load conditions. The system performance was rated on the pull-down time in reference to the environmental testing standard DIN EN 60068-3-5, the energy consumption and the temperature stability in part load. The investigation concludes with a discussion of the retrofit and further advised system adaptions for the new refrigerant.

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  • Original title: Experimental investigation of a new ultra-low temperature refrigerant to replace R23 in an environmental test chamber.
  • Record ID : 30030607
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: HFCs alternatives
  • Source: 2022 Purdue Conferences. 19th International Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2022

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