Before this time, R410A refrigerant was a dominant refrigerant in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) system due to its cheap price and easy to get at any air conditioning shop. However, the implementation of this R410A in RAC brings about the depletion of the ozone layer due to greenhouse effect that present in the R410A. Due to this disadvantage, R410A refrigerant needed to be replaced in RAC system. An alternative replacement for R410A must be have almost thermophysical properties with R410A itself. Many engineers in this field propose Difluoromethane (R32) as the replacement because it has potential to reduce global warming. Thus, the primary objective of this research is to investigate the performance characteristics of the R32 as a suitable replacement for R410A in refrigeration and air conditioning system at different ambient temperatures. This study was conducted by simulation using the software called REFPROP. Simulation was run by using R410A and R32 with 5 different ambient temperatures that have been set up (i.e. 5oC, 10oC, 15oC and 20oC with room temperature fixed at 25oC). This simulation collected data for Refrigerating effect, heating effect, work input by the compressor and the Coefficient of Performance (COP) for comparative review at the end of the simulation. The result showed that R32 have higher refrigerating effect as compared to R410A (i.e. refrigerating effect for R32 is 45% higher in value than R410A). It is equally obvious that better COP is obtained with R32 (3.66) as compared to R410A (3.54). From the foregoing analysis, it can be concluded that R32 is a better alternative refrigerant to be utilised in refrigeration and air conditioning system as compared to R410A.
Volume 11 | Issue 1
Pages: 68 - 74