Sultan Khalid

A Review and Comparison of Technical and Economic Aspects of the Current and Alternative Refrigeration Systems

Sultan Khalid and Shahin Shafiee (Faculty Mentor)

Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Prairie View A&M University

Vapor-compression systems have effectively served HVAC needs for residential and commercial buildings for close to 100 years. While being a dominant technology to accomplish refrigeration, vapor-compression systems account for 4.32 Quads per year of energy usage in the U.S. The increasing awareness of environmental degradation, the production, use, and disposal of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as refrigerants in mechanical refrigeration systems has also become a subject of great concern. This paper initially reviews the efforts that are being directed to identify, analyze, and assess technologies, which could serve as alternatives to vapor-compression for refrigeration. According to Department of Energy-Building Technlogies Office, switiching to alternative refrigeration technlogies could save up to 2.8 Quads per year of U.S. energy. The paper therefore identifies anddescribes severalalternative refrigeration systems such as thermoelectric refrigeration, thermoacoustic refrigeration, magnetic refrigeration, pulse tube refrigeration, absorption cooling, and solid sorption refrigeration, based on the concept behind their technology, their thermodynamic properties, and their state-of-theart status. A technicalassessment ofthese alternative technologies isconducted and is intended to involve evaluating two fundamental criteria - environmental acceptability and economic analysis. Environmental acceptability considerations will encompass ozone depletion potential, global warming potential, the toxicity of the working material, flammability, and noise. The financial analysis will include the -cost-related technology assessment considering the state of the art, size, weight, system complexity, useful life, maintenance, and efficiency. The paper provides a comparison of different types of alternative refrigeration technologies in terms of their cycle efficiency, coefficient of performance (COP), environmental friendliness, advantages and disadvantages on their potential domestic and commercial use. The work concludes with the most promising alternative refrigeration technology to vapor compression systems.

52 | Page