Chapter 9: Carbon Dioxide (R744) The New Refrigerant (updated 8/4/... http://www.ohio.edu/mechanical/thermo/applied/chapt.7_11/chapter9.

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Chapter 9: Carbon Dioxide (R744) - The New Refrigerant

Introduction and Discussion
In the early days of refrigeration the two refrigerants in common use were ammonia and
carbon dioxide. Both were problematic - ammonia is toxic and carbon dioxide requires
extremely high presures (from around 30 to 200 atmospheres!) to operate in a refrigeration
cycle, and since it operates on a transcritical cycle the compressor outlet temperature is
extremely high (around 160C). When Freon 12 (dichloro-diflouro-methane) was
discovered it totally took over as the refrigerant of choice. It is an extremely stable, non toxic
fluid, which does not interact with the compressor lubricant, and operates at pressures always
somewhat higher than atmospheric, so that if any leakage occured, air would not leak into the
system, thus one could recharge without having to apply vacuum.
Unfortunately when the refrigerant does ultimately leak and make its way up to the ozone
layer the ultraviolet radiation breaks up the molecule releasing the highly active chlorine
radicals, which help to deplete the ozone layer. Freon 12 has since been banned from usage on
a global scale, and has been essentially replaced by chlorine free R134a (tetraflouro-ethane) not as stable as Freon 12, however it does not have ozone depletion characteristics.
Recently, however, the international scientific consensus is that Global Warming is caused by
human energy related activity, and various man made substances are defined on the basis of a
Global Warming Potential (GWP) with reference to carbon dioxide (GWP = 1). R134a has
been found to have a GWP of 1300 and in Europe, within a few years, automobile air
conditioning systems will be barred from using R134a as a refrigerant.
The new hot topic is a return to carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. The previous two major
problems of high pressure and high compressor temperature are found in fact to be
advantageous. The very high cycle pressure results in a high fluid density throughout the
cycle, allowing miniturization of the systems for the same heat pumping power requirements.
Furthermore the high outlet temperature will allow instant defrosting of automobile
windshields (we don't have to wait until the car engine warms up) and can be used for
combined space heating and hot water heating in home usage (refer for example: Norwegian
IEA Heatpump Program Annex28).
Recent update March 2013 - Volkswagen, Daimler, Audi, BMW and Porsche have
announced plans to develop CO2 MAC (Mobile Air Conditioning) systems (refer:
Environmental Leader)

Property Tables for Carbon Dioxide (R744)

We were not able to find any published tables for Carbon Dioxide (R744) refrigerant, hence
decided to create our own. The following set of tables was developed using software from the
NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) and has been organized in a format
suitable for evaluating refrigeration and heat pump systems
Thermodynamic Properties of Carbon Dioxide R744

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The P-h diagram for Carbon Dioxide (R744)

The h-s Diagram for Carbon Dioxide (R744)

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A Heat Pump System using Carbon Dioxide Refrigerant (R744)

In addition to being a environmentally benign fluid, there can be significant advantages to
using carbon dioxide in a home air-conditioning/heat-pump system environment. Consider the
following system diagram:

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Notice that in addition to serving as an air conditioner/space heater, the high compressor outlet
temperature can be used to provide hot water at a significant economy over the regular gas or
electric hot water heater. Thus the heat flow to the hot water heater cools the gas from 160C
to 70C, and the heat flow to the space heater further reduces the gas temperature to 45C.
In order to determine the enthalpy at outlet station (4) we need to consider the energy equation
applied to the internal heat exchanger. Since we assume that it is externally adiabatic, all the
heat transfer is internal, as shown in the following:

Drawing all the processes of the above scheme on a P-h diagram we obtain the following
diagram. Notice the sketches on the diagram of the various components as well as the internal
heat exchanger indicating the heat flow from the gas cooler outlet (3) - (4) to the compressor
inlet (6) - (1).

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Problem 9.1 - Use the R744 refrigerant property tables in order to evaluate the
following:
Determine the work done on the compressor [97 kJ/kg].
Determine the heat rejected to the hot water heater [164 kJ/kg], and that rejected to the
space heater [97 kJ/kg].
Determine the Coefficient of Performance of the hot water heater [COPhw=1.7] and that
of the space heater [COPspace=1] (Recall that COP is defined as the desired heat
transferred divided by the work done on the compressor).
Determine the Coefficient of Performance of the air conditioner [COPa/c=1.7]. (Notice
from the P-h diagram that the internal heat exchanger significantly increases the capacity
of the air conditioner.)

Problem 9.2 - For the following additional questions we can assume that the compressor
power is 1kW. (Note - we can use the COP values to answer these questions - we do not need
to evaluate the mass flow rate of the refrigerant ):
Determine how long it will take to heat 100 liters of water in the tank from 30C to 60C
[2 hours]
During the summer months when the air conditioner is operating, determine the
volumetric flow rate of the air [5.1 m3/min] flowing through the evaporator cooling duct
in order to reduce the air temperature from 30C to 13C. (Note - assume a pressure of
100kPa and temperature of 25C to evaluate the specific volume of the air)

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During the winter months when the heat pump is operating, and using the same fan as
above determine increase in temperature of the air [10C] flowing through the space
heating duct.

Problem 9.3 - Notice that the compressor does not follow an isentropic process. This is a
practical system with data adapted from an actual automobile a/c design. In this exercise you
should do the following:
Plot the compressor process (1)-(2) on the enthalpy-entropy (h-s) diagram provided
above. Plot also the isentropic compressor process and (using the Property Tables)
determine the compressor isentropic efficiency C. Recall that the compressor isentropic
efficiency C is defined as the isentropic work done on the compressor divided by the
actual work done. Indicate both the isentropic work done and the actual work done on
the h-s diagram. [C=74%]

Problem 9.4 - A R744 (CO2) Home Geothermal Heat-Pump - It is a well known fact
that there is a year round constant temperature only a few meters below the earths surface. In
this problem we wish to evaluate a system which is designed to use this underground thermal
source to advantage.

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