Thermodynamic and Energy Efficiency Analysis of a Domestic Refrigerator Using Al2O3 Nano-Refrigerant

Abstract

Refrigeration systems have experienced massive technological changes in the past 50 years. Nanotechnology can lead to a promising technological leap in the refrigeration industry. Nano-refrigerant still remains unknown because of the complexity of the phase change process of the mixture including refrigerant, lubricant, and nanoparticle. In this study, the stability of Al2O3 nanofluid and the performance of a nano-refrigerant-based domestic refrigerator have been experimentally investigated, with the focus on the thermodynamic and energy approaches. It was found that by increasing the nanoparticle concentration, the stability of nano-lubricant was decreased and evaporator temperature gradient was increased. The average of the temperature gradient increment in the evaporator was 20.2% in case of using 0.1%-Al2O3. The results showed that the energy consumption of the refrigerator reduced around 2.69% when 0.1%-Al2O3 nanoparticle was added to the system.

A Theoretical Comparative Study of Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Cycle using Al2O3 Nanoparticle with Low-GWP Refrigerants

“…The refrigeration system schematic and the corresponding P-h diagram are shown in Figure 1 . In this study, the nanorefrigerant model is based on the work of Aktemur et al [ 36 ], Aktas et al [ 37 ], and Javadi [ 28 ], and several assumptions from the work of Tashtoush et al [ 31 ] and Bellos et al [ 29 ] are made to simplify the model: (1) Heat loss and pressure drop of the working fluid during heat transfer are not considered. (2) The working fluid is saturated at the evaporator and the condenser outlet.…”

Trends in Research on Energy Efficiency in Appliances and Correlations with Energy Policies

“…Furthermore, the most recent publication by R. Saidur (2021) reports on a thermodynamic analysis of a domestic refrigerator using the nano-refrigerant Al 2 O 3 . The results showed that the energy consumption of the refrigerator was reduced by approximately 2.69% when using 0.1% Al 2 O 3 [13].…”