Safe Use of Flammable Refrigerants in Cooling/Heating Cycles

The F-Gas regulation and the resulting phasedown of fluorinated hydrocarbons (HFOs) as safe refrigerants effects an increase in research and development activities for alternative low-GWP refrigerants. Besides new synthetic refrigerants, there is a focus on natural refrigerants like hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are characterized by a low GWP and promising thermodynamic properties. However, they can be dangerous to humans and nature by different degrees in case of leakage. Thus, the development of safety concepts has become of central importance in the R&D of refrigerant circuit (e.g. HP’s). In this work, a sorption filter adsorbing the refrigerant in the event of an occuring leakage will be presented. The adsorption process is coupled to the casing of a refrigerant system in order to reduce the refrigerant release in critical amount. The main focus of this presentation is set on the evaluation of the sorption filter for the uptake of a flammable refrigerant and thermodynamic behaviour.