HCFC-22 replacement with drop-in and retrofit HFC refrigerants in a two-stage refrigeration plant for low temperature

The world community has committed to eliminate the HCFC-22 refrigerant to a series of deadlines according to the agreements taken during the 19th Montreal Protocol meeting in September 2007. This phase-out, which is already in progress in European Countries, has been accelerated in Article 5 countries. Refrigerant manufactures offer different drop-in refrigerants to replace R22 in existing equipment by non-ozone depleting substances in order to be able to make full use of the remaining life of the plants or different retrofit refrigerants, the use of which implies modifications to the existing systems. ork aims to contribute to the understanding of the implications of the process of R22 substitution, either with drop-in or retrofitting processes, by presenting a theoretical and experimental analysis of the performance of R22, of two drop-in fluids (R422A, R417B) and a retrofit refrigerant (R404A), in a two-stage vapour compression plant over a wide range of evaporating temperatures for a fixed condensing temperature of 40 °C. In this communication the main energy parameters, such as cooling capacity and COP are analysed and discussed.