Preliminary study on vapor compression refrigeration cycle with an internal phase-separating loop using a R290/R600a mixture in air conditioner

The current vapor compression cycle has been extensively applied in air conditioning systems. However, there continue to be some problems that occur in its use, such as arising from the impact of the use of synthetic refrigerants that result in the depletion of the ozone layer and global warming, adds heavy load of the vehicle and consumes considerable energy. This study will examine a vapor compression refrigeration cycle with an internal phase-separating loop (ILP-VCC) to improve the performance of a zeotropic R290 / R600a hydrocarbon mixture in an air conditioning system compared with R134a. Some system performance parameters studied carefully include refrigerant charge, compressor work, working pressure, electric energy consumption and COP. As comparisons, the performances of conventional vapor compression refrigeration cycle (C-VCC) using R134a and using R290/R600a blend were also tested. The results show that R290/R600a mixture reduces the refrigerant charge by 52.2% and decreases the compressor work by 4.87% and gives a higher COP compared to R134a. In the ILP-VCC R290/R600a mixture provides an increased volumetric cooling capacity of 6.6% and an increase of 6.63% in COP compared to that in C-VCC.