Analysis of COP Using Blended R134a and R600a in Refrigeration System as a Replacement to R134a

Identifying long-term alternatives to fulfill system performance and service needs during the phase-out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is an important field of study in the refrigeration and air conditioning industries. The present investigation focused on performance analysis of blended mixtures of R134a–R600a, R134a and R600a in Vapor Compression Refrigeration System (VCRS). Various weight percentages of R134a and R600a were charged to the system and parameters such as power consumption by compressor, cooling capacity, and coefficient of performance (COP) were obtained. The results obtained for the 30/70 percentage of the R134a–R600a mixture showed the lowest power consumption of 77 watts, which was 33% lower than R134a and 27% less than R600a when used individually. The same composition had the highest theoretical and actual COP of 5.42 and 4.7 respectively among all tested compositions of refrigerants. The refrigerating effect was 0.3799 kW for composition 50–50 of R134a–R600a which is 8% higher than R134a. Among the blended compositions of R134a–R600a, the weight percentage of 30/70 can be preferred due to low power consumption, good refrigerating effect and COP as experimentally investigated. © The Institution of Engineers (India) 2024.