Welcome To ISHRAE

Chapter Name : - ISHRAE Vadodara

REPORTED ON : - 08.08.19
 Speaker Introduction :
1) Name : Mr. Jigar Indravadan Shah
2) Qualification
: B.E Chemical
3) Profession: Proprietor of M/s. Unique Airtech
4) Job Profile
: Consultant & Turn-Key Project Contractor
For Refrigeration & Air Conditioning projects
like Cold Storage, Chiller plant, Ice Plant
HVAC etc.
1) Yrs of Exp. : 20+
 Refrigerant

What is Refrigerant :
It is a media which extract heat from the substance which need to be cool and
dissipate it outside and so it a heat carrier substance.

In a standard mechanical cooling system, heat is removed by evaporating a

liquid refrigerant in the evaporator and expelling heat at the condenser. This
causes the refrigerant to change from a vapour to a liquid.

So a Fluid which can be changed easily from a liquid to a vapour and from a
vapour to a liquid are used as the medium because such a change is
accompanied by a change in heat content and so the heat get transfer.

In this some are better (NH3 / CO2) then the other (CFC / HCFC / HFC)
 SELECTION OF REFRIGERANT
There are certain desirable Characteristics which a fluid used as a
refrigerant should possess :
 It should be Non Poisonous.
 It should be Non Explosive
 It should be Non Corrosive
 It should be Non flammable.
 Leaks should be easy to detect.
 It should operate under low pressure (Low Boiling Point)
 It should be a stable gas
 It should be Non Toxic.
 It should have a well balanced latent heat of evaporation value per unit
of weight.
 It should have a small relative displacement to obtain a certain
refrigeration effect.
.  A minimum difference between the vaporizing pressure and the
condensing pressure is desirable.
 Parts moving in the fluid should be easy to lubricate.
CLASSIFICATION OF REFRIGERATION

They are classified in to various zone base on their safety factor,

toxicicity & flamability, energy consumability and environment
friendlyness.
 History of Refrigerant :

 As seen above in the first half of the 20th century CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons)
became the obvious choice due to their non-toxicity, odourless, non-corrosive
and non flammable properties.

 But in late 1974 it became known that all this CFC were responsible for depletion of Earth’s
Stratospheric Ozone Layer, Particularly in the polar region and this depelation leads to
permitting high levels of UV radiation to reach the Earth’s surface.

 So in 1987 the Montreal Protocol came in to picture to phase out substance this substance
with high Ozone Depleting Potential, known as ODP. And CFC were the major source.

 And so HCFCs (Hydrochloroflurocarbons) were developed to replace the CFC.

 But this HCFC were Later found that had higher GWP (Global Warming Potential i.e gases
like CO2 which do not allow sun’s heat to escape the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in heat
build up)
.
 And so In 1994 Kyoto Protocol was developed to get rid of this high ODP & high GWP
refrigerant as shown in chart below (Figure 1 GWP V/s. ODP map of refrigerant)
and HFC & Natural refrigerant once again came back in to picture.
Figure-1 GWP vs ODP map for refrigerants
 Natural Choice of Refrigerant :

 As sheen above that how to chose one refrigeration

base on its ODP, GWP, toxicity & flammibility and so it
is obivous to go for natural refrigerant like NH3, CO2 & Holocarbon as
shown below in Table 1.
 Also the unfavourable impact of toxicity due to leak of
NH3 refrigerant will occur only when the refrigerant
leaks which can be prevented by making leak proof
system, periodically checking & Pr. Testing the
system, using low refrigerant charge by using
compact heat exchanger like PHE etc.
 CONCLUSION
Thus we conclude from
the above that NH3 is
natural choice of
refrigerant and
should be used with
latest technology to
reduce its impact of
toxicity.