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PUBLICATIONS

From the Beginnings of Artificial Cold to Climate-Friendly Fluids; Evolution of Refrigerants Application

Published

Author(s)

Piotr A. Domanski

Abstract

The presentation will discuss the application of refrigerants starting from the beginnings of ‘artificial cold' in the era of industrial revolution to the currently used fluids, and the refrigerant options in response to concerns regarding stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change. The availability of refrigerants having low global warming potential (GWP) varies between different applications as it will be demonstrated by four system types. Unitary air conditioning (high-pressure application) presents a particularly difficult challenge; no single ideal refrigerant exists, and a tradeoff between flammability and GWP seems to be necessary. The probability of finding better-performing, non-flammable, low-GWP fluids is minimal. This viewpoint is based on the findings from a NIST study, which a screened database of 60 million molecules. The search for suitable refrigerants relied on screening this database using filters of environmental acceptance, chemical stability in the system, low toxicity, coefficient of performance (COP and volumetric capacity (Qvol). The presentation will include a discussion of refrigerant flammability and refrigerant blends formulated in the pursuit of desired attributes of the working fluids.
Proceedings Title
9th International Conference on Compressors and Refrigeration (ICCR2018), Xi’an, P.R. China,
July
10-12, 2019
Conference Dates
July 10-12, 2019
Conference Location
Xi'an
Pub Type
Conferences

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Keywords

air conditioning, cooling, Global Warming Potential, refrigeration, working fluids
Buildings and Construction

Citation

Domanski, P. (2019), From the Beginnings of Artificial Cold to Climate-Friendly Fluids; Evolution of Refrigerants Application, 9th International Conference on Compressors and Refrigeration (ICCR2018), Xi’an, P.R. China, July 10-12, 2019, Xi'an, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=928293 (Accessed October 8, 2025)

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Created July 10, 2019, Updated March 1, 2021
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