Abstract
There has been an increasing interest in the use of natural refrigerants in order to minimize the environmental impact of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. This article is focused on the performance characterization of two widely accepted natural refrigerants; ammonia and propane for heat pump applications. Different cycle configurations including basic vapor compression cycle, cycle with liquid-line/suction-line heat exchanger and a two-stage flash economizer cycle have been analyzed for the performance evaluation of ammonia and propane in comparison to R-134a and R410A. The ultimate objective is to evaluate the performance of a heat pump utilizing natural refrigerants perform in relatively warm and cold climate with minimum environmental impact.
