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

• Main Authors: Farhood Sarrafzadeh Javadi, Rahman Saidur
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: nano-refrigerant; nanofluid; refrigerator; energy efficiency; thermodynamic analysis; aluminum oxide
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5659

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.