Performance Analysis of Hydrocarbon Mixture to Replace R134a in an Automotive Air Conditioning System

At present, most air conditioners in an automotive use R134a as working fluid. Due to the negative impact on the environment, i.e. global warming, the refrigerant must be replaced by environmental friendly working fluid. Hydrocarbons are natural fluids, no effect on the climate, inexpensive and readily available. The hydrocarbon mixture used in the present study is R436A, composed of R290 (propane) and R600a (isobutane) with a mass ratio of 56/44. The results show that the drop-in substitute from R134a to R436A reduced COP by 4.84, 4.74 and 4.64% for the condenser temperature of 40, 45 and 50 degrees C, respectively. To generate COP improvement on the drop-in substitute, subcooling was carried out, and results show that the COP improvement was 4.42, 5.20 and 6.09% for the condenser temperature of 40, 45 and 50 degrees C, respectively.