A review on the performance of nanoparticles suspended with refrigerants and lubricating oils in refrigeration systems

Recently scientists used nanoparticles in refrigeration systems because of theirs remarkable improvement in thermo-physical, and heat transfer capabilities to enhance the efficiency and reliability of refrigeration and air conditioning system. In this paper thermal-physical properties of nanoparticles suspended in refrigerant and lubricating oil of refrigerating systems were reviewed. Heat transfer performance of different nanorefrigerants with varying concentrations was reviewed and review results are presented as well. Pressure drop and pumping power of a refrigeration system with nanorefrigerants were obtained from different sources and reported in this review. Along with these, pool boiling heat transfer performance of CNT refrigerant was reported. Moreover, challenges and future direction of nanofluids/nanorefrigerants have been reviewed and presented in this paper. Based on results available in the literatures, it has been found that nanorefrigerants have a much higher and strongly temperature-dependent thermal conductivity at very low particle concentrations than conventional refrigerant. This can be considered as one of the key parameters for enhanced performance for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. Because of its superior thermal performances, latest upto date literatures on this property has been summarized and presented in this paper as well. The results indicate that HFC134a and mineral oil with TiO2 nanoparticles works normally and safely in the refrigerator with better performance. The energy consumption of the HFC134a refrigerant using mineral oil and nanoparticles mixture as lubricant saved 26.1% energy with 0.1% mass fraction TiO2 nanoparticles compared to the HFC134a and POE oil system. It was identified that fundamental properties (i.e. density, specific heat capacity, and surface tension) of nanorefrigerants were not experimentally determined yet. It may be noted as well that few barriers and challenges those have been identified in this review must be addressed carefully before it can be fully implemented in refrigeration and air conditioning systems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.