Academic literature on the topic 'HFC-407C'

Due to the growing global concerns around the use of refrigerants with relatively high global warming potential, new refrigerants with the positive attributes of both high thermal performance and low environmental impact are currently in development by Honeywell. These new refrigerants exhibit promising performance when compared with refrigerants currently used in stationary AC systems such as those that use R-410A, R-407C, and R-134a, for example. These new refrigerants also show significantly lower flammability characteristics than the much more flammable hydrocarbons. Replacements of common HFC refrigerants such as R-410A and R-407C are discussed for residential air conditioning applications. Thermal properties as well as experimental results in representative air conditioning systems are presented, showing the benefits of using these new refrigerants.

HCFC-22 is the world�s most widely used refrigerant. It serves in both residential and commercial applications, from small window units to large water chillers, and everything in between. Its particular combination of efficiency, capacity and pressure has made it a popular choice for equipment designers. Nevertheless, it does have some ODP, so international law set forth in the Montreal Protocol and its Copenhagen and Vienna amendments have put HCFC-22 on a phase out schedule. In developed countries, production of HCFC-22 will end no later than the year 2030. Zeotropic blend HFC-407C has been established as a drop-in alternative for HCFC-22 in the industry due to their zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and similarities in thermodynamic properties and performance. However, when a system is charged with a zeotropic mixture, it raises concerns about temperature glide at two-phase state, differential oil solubility and internal composition shift. Not enough research has been done to cover all aspects of alternative refrigerants applications in the systems. This research intended to explore behavior of this alternative refrigerants compare to HCFC-22 and challenges facing the industry in design, operation service and maintenance of these equipments. The purpose of this research is to investigate behavior of R407C refrigerant in chiller systems. This includes performance and efficiency variations when it replaces R22 in an existing system as well as challenges involved maintaining the system charged with R407C. It is a common practice in the industry these days to evacuate and completely recharge when part of the new refrigerant blend was leaked from the system. This has proved to be extremely costly exercise with grave environmental ramifications. This research is intended to address challenges faced in the real world and practical terms. Theoretical and experimental approaches used as a methodology in this work. The system mathematically modeled to predict detailed system performance and effect of the leak at various conditions. To make this feasible and accurate enough, two separate approaches made, first system performance for pure R22 and R407C, and second system subjected to range of leak fractions. The earlier model was relatively straight forward when compared to the latter. Modeling a system charged with R407C ternary mixture and subjected to range of leaks posed enormous challenges. A sophisticated experimental test apparatus was also designed and built. Comprehensive and detailed tests at various conditions were conducted with special attention on instrumental accuracy and correct methodology. The first part has been successfully modeled and predicted all the factors and performance with excellent accuracy when compared to the test results. In these approaches pure refrigerants R22 and R407C were used and simulated the system behavior at range of conditions. However, the second part was the most challenging ever. Comprehensive leak process simulations produced trends of R32/R125/R134a composition change as function of rate of leak. Starting from this point, equations have been created to represent the composition change as function of percentage of the leak. The system thermodynamic cycle was also modeled to calculate capacity, power input and COP at the range of the conditions. Despite many affecting parameters and complexity of the model, the mathematical model successfully predicted the test outcome with a very reasonable accuracy, averaging around 3% with some times reaching to 5 to 6%. On the experimental stage the system charged with the new HFC-407C was deliberately subjected to refrigerant leak at various leak stages. The aim was to objectively determine to what extend the gas leak can be still acceptable without going through the expensive complete gas charge. The effect of leak was tested and verified at 10% steps, from 10% up to 50% mass fraction for the total charge. It has been observed that at the leaks beyond 30%, the adverse effect on the capacity becomes more significant, from 8 to about 15% decrease. While the power input decreased at slower pace, from 3% up to about 8% depending on the test conditions. This translated to COP decrease ranging from 4 to about 7%. This capacity loss and efficiency decrease are significant figures which suggests that the system, here chiller, can not be allowed to degrade the performance to that extend and still continue operating.

Thesis (PhD) - Swinburne University of Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, 2006.
A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Engineering and Science, Swinburne University of Technology, 2006. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-127).

Single-stage vapour compression refrigeration system was compared with an actual vapour compression cycle, single-stage process with internal heat exchanger, and a two-stage process with economiser using the refrigerants of HCFC-22, CFC-502 and their alternatives such as HFC-134a, HFC-32, HFC-152a, HFC-404A, HFC-407C, HFC-507, HFC-410A. A theoretical performance study on a cascade refrigeration system was performed using two refrigeration cycles connected through the heat exchanger in the middle working as the evaporator for the high pressurized cycle and condenser for the low pressurized cycle. Other performance study was performed using a two-stage cascade refrigeration system having low and high pressure compressors connected through the mixing chamber in the middle. The condensation temperatures were between 30 and 50 °C, evaporation temperatures were between −50 °C and 5 °C and heat exchanger and economiser temperatures were kept as constant for the comparisons. Some of the alternative refrigerants’ coefficients of performance values are found to be higher than their base traditional pure refrigerants. The effects of the main parameters of performance analysis such as refrigerant type, degree of subcooling, and superheating on the performance coefficient, refrigerant charge rate and volumetric refrigeration capacity are investigated for various operating conditions as case studies.

In this paper, a cold-room system in a frigoship was analyzed as a case study to demonstrate the application of the proposed model. The model was also evaluated in terms of the alteration of alternative refrigerants and insulation thickness of the cold rooms’ refrigeration system. The coefficients of performance (COP), refrigerant charge rates, and capacities of each component of the refrigeration system for the refrigerants CFC-12, HCFC-22 and their alternatives, such as HFC-134a, HFC-410a, HFC-404a, HFC-407c, and HFC-507 were determined by considering the effects of the main parameters of the performance analysis, such as refrigerant type, Based on the results of the energy analyses, all of the alternative refrigerants have a slightly lower COP and require higher compressor work than CFC-12 and HCFC-22 for condensation temperature of 40°C. The hunted fishes have an evaporation temperature of −25°C regarding with the preserved product in the case studies. Effects of isolation thickness of wall on evaporator capacity and sea water temperature on condenser are also investigated. Also variation capacity of system components such as evaporator, condenser and compressor with relative humidity of neighbor volume is studied.

An experimental test facility is designed and built to calculate condensation heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops for HFC-134a, R-404A, R-407C, R-507A in a smooth and micro-fin tube. The main objective of the experimentation is to investigate the enhancement in condensation heat transfer coefficient and increase in pressure drop using micro-fin tube for different condensing temperatures and further to develop an empirical correlation for heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, which takes into account the micro-fin tube geometry, variation of condensing temperature and temperature difference (difference between condensing temperature and average temperature of cooling medium). The experimental setup has a facility to vary the different operating parameters such as condensing temperature, cooling water temperature, flow rate of refrigerant and cooling water etc and study their effect on heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops. The hermetically sealed reciprocating compressor is used in the system, thus the effect of lubricating oil on the heat transfer coefficient is taken in to account. This paper reports the detailed description of design and development of the test apparatus, control devices, instrumentation, and the experimental procedure. It also covers the comparative study of experimental apparatus with the existing one from the available literature survey. The condensation and pressure drop of HFC-134a in a smooth tube are measured and obtained the values of condensation heat transfer coefficients for different mass flux and condensing temperatures using modified Wilson plot technique with correlation coefficient above 0.9. The condensation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop increases with increasing mass flux and decreases with increasing condensing temperature. The results are compared with existing available correlations for validation of test facility. The experimental data points have good association with available correlations except Cavallini-Zecchin Correlation.