Performance of Alternative Refrigerants in Low Temperature Chillers

This paper is about the performance of alternative refrigerants for low temperature and transport refrigeration chillers. A breadboard refrigeration chiller was constructed with counterflow heat exchangers. R502, its transitional alternatives of R402A and R402B, and long-term alternatives of R404A and R507 were tested in an attempt to compare the performance of each refrigerant against R502. Measurements were conducted at two condensing temperatures of 43.3$^{\circ}C$ and 52.$0^{\circ}C$ and the evaporating temperature was varied over a range from -$25^{\circ}C$ to -5$^{\circ}C$. The evaporator superheat and condenser subcooling were maintained constant at about 5$^{\circ}C$ for all tests. Test results showed that all alternative fluids tested in this work can be used as 'drop-in fluids' to replace R502 without any major problem. It is also found that in the long run HFC alternatives are to be used due to their favorable environmental characteristics and better performance.