Performance of a new refrigeration cycle using refrigerant mixture R32/R134a for residential air-conditioner applications

In this paper, a new refrigeration cycle (NRC) using the binary non-azeotropic refrigerant mixture R32/R134a is presented, which can be an alternative refrigeration cycle applied in residential air-conditioner. In the NRC, refrigerant circuit of the evaporator is separated into two branches. Because the non-azeotropic mixture has the characteristic of temperature glide, an important benefit of such configuration is that the Lorentz cycle can be realized. Compared with that of conventional cycle configuration, the new cycle efficiency can be improved. The calculating results show that, in the conventional refrigeration cycle (CRC), the mixture R32/R134a has a close performance to that is obtainable with pure refrigerant R22. However, the mixture R32/R134a in the NRC will result in a better performance. The maximal COP can be improved in a range of 8–9% over that of the CRC, and the volumetric refrigerating capacity can be approximately increased by 9.5%.