Hydrocarbons as natural refrigerants for heat pump water heating applications

Kashif Nawaz, Ahmed Elatar, Bo Shen, Van Baxter, Omar Abdelaziz

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Growing awareness of the potential environmental impacts of conventional refrigerants (CFCs and HFCs) has led to efforts to identify suitable refrigerants for various heat pump applications with minimum environmental impact. This study is focused on the performance evaluation of pure propane and isobutane as drop-in-replacement for R134a for heat pump water heating (HPWH). A component-based model is used to predict the performance. Key performance parameters such as unified energy factor, first hour rating and thermal stratification in the water tank are investigated. Appropriate experiments are conducted to validate the finding from model. Simulation and experimental findings suggest that both alternative refrigerants could provide comparable system performance to that of the baseline system containing R134a. System refrigerant charge and the condenser discharge temperature are established to investigate the potential of hydrocarbon refrigerants to substitute R134a without significant system modifications.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationICR 2019 - 25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration
EditorsVasile Minea
PublisherInternational Institute of Refrigeration
Pages4754-4762
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9782362150357
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Event25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, ICR 2019 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: Aug 24 2019Aug 30 2019

Publication series

NameRefrigeration Science and Technology
Volume2019-August
ISSN (Print)0151-1637

Conference

Conference25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, ICR 2019
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period08/24/1908/30/19

Funding

Funding for this work is provided by the US Department of Energy, Washington, DC. The authors thank Mr. Antonio Bouza, program manager for the DOE Office of Building Technologies. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-‐Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-‐AC05-‐00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a

FundersFunder number
US Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Building Technologies Office

    Keywords

    • Heat Pumps
    • Hot Water Heating
    • Hydrocarbons
    • Natural Refrigerants

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