Screening of pure fluids as alternative refrigerants

Hydrofluorocarbons are now well established as refrigerants because of their zero ozone depletion potential. Since they have a high global warming potential, other alternatives as, e.g. fluorinated ethers or cyclic hydrocarbons are considered as next-generation refrigerants. Screening of alternative refrigerants is difficult because mostly no or only few data are available. To evaluate, e.g. the cycle performance, the thermodynamic properties of the refrigerants must be known and described accurately by an equation of state. Here, the physically based BACKONE equations are used to describe alternative refrigerants, such as natural refrigerants, hydrofluorocarbons, fluorinated cyclic hydrocarbons, and fluorinated ethers. BACKONE needs only a few substance specific parameters to describe thermodynamic properties with high accuracy. Thus, even alternative refrigerants, with very few available experimental data can be described. Calculations with BACKONE of the performance of many refrigerants show that some hydrocarbons and fluorinated ethers are a good alternative.