Binary blend of carbon dioxide and fluoro ethane as working fluid in transcritical heat pump systems

As an eco-friendly working fluid, carbon dioxide or R744 is expected to substitute for the existing working fluids used in heat pump systems. It is, however, challenged by the much higher heat rejection pressure in transcritical cycle compared with the traditional subcritical cycle using freons. There exists a worldwide tendency to utilize blend refrigerants as alternatives. Therefore, a new binary blend R744/R161 in this research is proposed in order to decrease the heat rejection pressure. Meanwhile, on mixing R744 with R161, the flammability and explosivity of R161 can be suppressed because of the extinguishing effect of R744. A transcritical thermodynamic model is developed, and then the system performances of heat pump using R744/R161 blend are investigated and compared with those of pure R744 system under the same operation conditions. The variations of heat rejection pressure, heating coefficient of performance, unit volumetric heating capacity, discharge temperature of compressor and the mass fraction of R744/R161 are researched. The results show that R744/R161 mixture can reduce the heat rejection pressure of transcritical heat pump system