Koura’s low GWP Refrigerants – solutions ranging from comforting cooling to ultra-low temperature refrigeration

In this presentation, two types of Koura developed refrigerants will be discussed;
(1) retrofit refrigerants with similar properties to incumbent refrigerants (R-456A, R-444A and R-473A) and
(2) GWP below 150 refrigerants for new systems (R-492A and R-485A).

Description

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Speaker

south_east

When & Where

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Tue, 08.10.2024, 12:00 – 12:20

place

Hall 8 / 8-516

Details

Format: Lecture

Language: English

Description

The recently revised F-gas poses additional pressure for the HVAC&R industry to accelerate refrigerant transition. Not all applications can immediately adopt very low GWP refrigerants as these fluids tend to have mild or high flammability with installation and charge restrictions. Also retrofit solutions need to have similar thermodynamic properties to the incumbent refrigerant to ensure optimum performance and minimum downtime. These interim solutions allow existing systems to age gracefully for their remaining lifespan while new systems designed for very low GWP refrigerants are introduced to the market. To that end, Koura developed separate product solutions for retrofits and new systems.

For retrofit, three refrigerants, R-456A, R-444A and R-473A, will be discussed. As medium pressure refrigerants, R-456A can be used in R-134a systems while reducing GWP by 50 % while R-444A offers improved efficiency in R-1234yf systems with mild flammability. R-473A is an alternative for R-23 or 508B in ultra-low temperature applications with 85 % lower GWP. The properties and performance of these fluids will be compared against incumbent refrigerants.

Lastly, two less than 150 GWP refrigerants will be reviewed. R-492A and R-485A are designed to overcome drawbacks of R-744 and R-290, respectively, while similar thermodynamic properties conveniently allow them to utilize the components and systems of the natural refrigerants. R-485A’s 10 K higher critical temperature than R-744 not only allows its effective usage in warmer climate conditions, but also showed 9 % COP improvement in a drop in heat pump water heater assessment. In the case of R-492A, the refrigerant glide and lower flammability of A2L/A2 makes it safer and favorable in air to water or water to water applications over propane. Further details will be provided during the session. ... read more