HFO1234yf as a drop-in replacement for R134a in Domestic Refrigerators: A life cycle climate performance analysis

Abstract

Based on recent surveys, about 17% of the overall energy consumption comes out from refrigeration. Nowadays the use of environmentally friendly refrigerants has become a "must" in order to mitigate the global warming. A Vapor Compression Plant (VCP) produces typically both a direct and an indirect contribution to global warming where the first one is related to the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the fraction of refrigerant charge, released accidentally in the atmosphere or not recovered when the system is scrapped. The employment of an environmental metric, in order to facilitate the choice of low GWP refrigerants, has to be implemented in VCPs. LCCP is one of the most comprehensive parameters which takes into account all the relevant indirect emissions related to the whole process of VCP and refrigerant manufacturing and their transportation. In this paper the results of an experimental comparative analysis between R134a and HFO1234yf, implemented in a domestic refrigerator, are presented. It have been measured energy consumptions under sub-Tropical conditions in accordance with the UNI-EN-ISO15502. In addition a LCCP analysis, to evaluate the environmental impact due to HFO1234yf used as a substitute of R134a, is reported.