FINAL YEAR PROJECT 1

Preliminary Report
Study of Green Refrigerants: Water Vapour

Supervisor: Prof. Dr Vijay R Raghavan

By Norhazini binti Awang 10337 Mechanical Engineering

ABSTRACT

Even though chemical refrigerants are the heart of a large majority of refrigerant equipment and it provide enormous benefits to the society but they have harmful consequences when release to atmosphere. It caused significant damage to the protective ozone layer in the earths upper atmosphere, and most also enhanced the greenhouse effect, leading to accelerated global warming. Green refrigerant will give a competitive edge in years to come because water is one of the sustainable refrigerants. These naturally occurring compounds have far lower potential for atmosphere damage than manufactured chemical refrigerant. Since the water refrigerant is not widely use in the industries yet, the further study will be done on classification of environmental friendly refrigerant. Apart perform the thermodynamic calculations to design the appropriate features of the plant elements.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT . CHAPTER 1:

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i 1 1 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 9

INTRODUCTION 1.1. 1.2. 1.3.

Project Background Problem Statements

Objectives and Scope of Study. . . . . . .

CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 3:

LITERATURE REVIEW METHODOLOGY . 3.1. 3.2 3.3 Project Work

Research Methodology

Activities/Gantt Chart and Milestone . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER 4: REFERENCES

CONCLUSION . . .

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Project Background Everywhere in the world, refrigeration is a major energy user and it became part of our way of life. But nowadays, after using CFCs, BFCs, HCFC and HFCs refrigerant for a long period time, there is a serious concern of environmental issues including ozone depletion potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP), safety (toxicity and flammability), operating cost, refrigeration capacity and coefficient of performance (COP). [1] Today, the preservation of the ozone layer is the first priority of refrigerant selection. Due to the global warming effect, it is a need to widely use water vapour refrigerant in the industries. So, a study of green refrigerant of water vapour initiated to be done in order to design plant elements compatible with the low pressures and the consequent very low density because at the operating temperatures of a typical refrigeration cycle, the operating pressures in a water vapor- based system are very low in a very high vacuum and the specific volume of water vapour is very high. [2]

1.2 Problem Statement Freon that is widely used in refrigeration systems is harmful to the environment. In order to protect the ozone layer and the earth from UV leakage, Freon has to be replaced with an environmental friendly fluid. In the refrigeration cycle, Freon is replaced by water vapour, to provide a green refrigerant and secure the environment.

1.3 Objectives and Scope of Study

This project is a study and reach based which emphasized the energy and environment sustainability issues as the top priority regardless the investment cost, the practicality of the system and the size of the features of the plant elements.

The objectives of this study is to identify the classification of the environmentally friendly refrigerant which include the comparison of other refrigerant in term of environment issues including ozone depletion potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP), safety (toxicity and flammability), operating cost, refrigeration capacity and coefficient of performance (COP).

Apart from that, the study is also to perform the thermodynamic calculations when Freon is replaced by water vapour in the refrigeration cycle and to design the appropriate features of the plant elements.

The author will take into consideration several constraints including leakage, thicker section, more resistant to heat transfer and high specific volume in order to overcome the great engineering challenge of water refrigerant.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Green refrigerant is an inorganic compound used far earlier than the halocarbons. Generally, water is one of the inorganic compounds which are an environment friendly refrigerant which is cheap, environmentally neutral, without any safety risks, suitable for any location, no eventual risk of future developments of different laws and regulations and supreme energy efficiency.[3] Refrigerant is defined as the process of extracting heat from a lower-temperature heat source, substance, or cooling medium and transferring it to a highertemperature heat sink. Refrigeration maintains the temperature of the heat source below that of its surroundings while transferring the extracted heat, and any required energy input, to a heat sink, atmospheric air, or surface water. A refrigeration system is a combination of components and equipment connected in a sequential order to produce the refrigeration effect. The type of input energy and refrigeration process that will cover in this research is vapor compression system. In vapour compression systems, compressors activate the refrigerant by compressing it to the higher pressure and higher temperature level after it has produced its refrigeration effect. The compressed refrigerant transfers its heat to the sink and is condensed to liquid form. This liquid refrigerant is then throttled to a low-pressure, low temperature vapour to produce refrigerating effect during evaporation. Vapour

compression systems are the most widely adopted refrigeration systems in both comfort and process air conditioning. On the other hand, multi-stage compression using centrifugal compressor technology will be required for water-based refrigerant cycle due to the large pressure ration and high volumetric flow rate requirements. Therefore, the implementation of intercooling may not add significantly to cycle complexity. [4] CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY/PROJECT WORK

3.1 Project work

Figure 1: Project Activities Flow

The project is a study base project. Specifically, it is a study of Green Refrigerants; water vapor. First and for most, the project will begin with the research on several issues which had been mention in the research methodology below. With the collective information, the project will proceed with the literature review on the refrigerant studies about water refrigerant which is one of the green

refrigerants and excellently act as a best environment friendly refrigerant. Besides, the author will discuss a basic knowledge of refrigeration system. It also covers the basic thermodynamic concept used throughout the study of green refrigerant. After completing the literature review, the further studies will move on to the classification of environmental friendly refrigerant. Nowadays, there are lots of refrigerant types available in the industries such as Inorganic Compound, Organic Compound, Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs), Bromofluorocarbon (BFCs), Hydro chlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) and Hydro fluorocarbons (HFSs) which have different characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Then, the thermodynamic calculation will be the typical part in the project in order to perform thermodynamic calculations when Freon is replaced by water vapor in the refrigeration cycle. After completing the calculation, the correlation of the mathematical manner will be fully manipulated in order to design the appropriate features of plant elements. The understanding of thermodynamic concept will be useful for designing the plant elements features and the constraint face by water refrigerant will give a great engineering challenge. Lastly, all the studies and discussion will be compiled in the final report. Apart from that, the new design of plant elements features will be further explain and justifies. The operational and safety requirements also can be developed from the study. 3.2 Research Methodology Research is a method taken in order to gain information regarding the major scope of the project. The sources of the research cover the handbook of air conditioning and refrigeration, e-journal, e-thesis and several trusted link. The steps of research:

1. Gain information of the classification of environmental friendly refrigerant which focus on green refrigerant and comparison of the water refrigerant with the other refrigerant. 2. List down the challenges of water refrigerant. 3. Simplify the thermodynamic concept used.

3.3 Activities/Gantt Chart and Milestone No Detail/Week 1 2 3 4 6 4 8 9 10 Selection of Project Topic: Study of Green Refrigerants : Water Vapour Mid-Semester Break Preliminary Research Work: Research on literatures related to the topic Submission of Preliminary Report Project Work: Study on the research scope and method Submission of Progress Report Seminar Project work continues: Further investigation on the project and do modification if necessary Submission of Interim Report Final Draft Oral Presentation Table 1: Gantt chart and Key Milestone During Study Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION In a conclusion, this project is a comprehensive research study about Green Refrigerant on water vapour. The project is related to the study on refrigeration system which is improving the practicality of water refrigerant usage in the industries. From the studies, we could find the values of high performance compressor in the refrigeration system. The thermodynamic calculation is very significant to design the appropriate features of the plant elements.

REFERENCES
1. Int. J.Energy Res. 2005, 29: 947 -959. A comparative study of water as

refrigerant with some current refrigerant. International Journal of Energy Research.

2. Shang K.Wang. Handbook of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, 2nd edition. 3. J.Kuhnl-Kinel ST Division. New Age Water Chillers with water as refrigerant.

Grouping and ventilation.

4. Brandon F. Lachner Jr. , Gregory F. Nellis, Douglas T.Reindl, University of

Wisconsin. The commercial feasibility of the use of water vapor as a refrigerant.