Performance Investigation of an Eco-Friendly Refrigerant Mixture as an Alternative to R290/R600a

R134a is the most widely used refrigerant in domestic refrigerators. It must be phased out soon according to Kyoto protocol due to its high global warming potential (GWP) of 1300. It has been proposed that by previous experimental investigations, R290/R600a is the best alternate ozone friendly refrigerant mixture for R134a. But due to its high flammability this mixture is not completely substituted as an alternate working fluid in our country. In the present work, performance investigation has been made with eco-friendly refrigerant mixture (composed of R123 and R290 in the ratio of 70:30 by weight) in a refrigerator. This mixture has a very low ozone depletion potential (ODP) and has zero GWP value. Also this mixture has low flammability index when compared with R290/R600a. Continuous running tests were performed under different ambient temperatures (23°C, 28°C, 32°C and 36°C).The ON OFF and DOOR OPEN test results showed that ON TIME percentage of the compressor for the mixture (HCFC123/HC290) is less than that for HCM (R290/R600a). Also the power consumed by mixture (HCFC123/HC290) is lesser by 15% than that of R290/R600a and due to its low flammability property it can be a valuable replacement for the R290/R600a refrigerant mixture.