Refrigeration & Air Conditioning

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 Refrigeration
• The term ‘refrigeration’ may be defined as the process
of removing heat from a substance under controlled
conditions.
• It also includes the process of reducing and maintaining
the temperature of a body below the general
temperature of its surroundings.
• In other words, the refrigeration means a continued
extraction of heat from a body whose temperature is
already below the temperature of its surroundings.

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 Units of Refrigeration
• The practical unit of refrigeration is expressed in terms of ‘tone of
refrigeration’ (briefly written as TR). A tone of refrigeration is defined as
the amount of refrigeration effect produced by the uniform melting of
one tone (1000 kg) of ice from and at 00C in 24 hours. Since the latent
heat of ice is 335 kJ/kg, therefore one tone of refrigeration,

• In actual practice, one tone of refrigeration is taken as equivalent to 210

kJ/min or 3.5 kW (i.e. 3.5 kJ/s).

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 Difference between a Heat Engine,
Refrigerator and Heat Pump

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 Refrigerants
• The refrigerant is heat carrying mediums which during their cycle (i.e. Compression, condensation, expansion
and evaporation) in the refrigeration system absorb heat from a low temperature system and discard the
heat so absorbed to a higher temperature system.

• The natural ice and a mixture of ice and salt were the first refrigerants. In 1834, ether, ammonia, sulphur
dioxide, methyl chloride and carbon dioxide came into use as refrigerants in compression cycle refrigeration
machines. Most of the early refrigerant materials have been discarded for safety reasons or for lack of
chemical or thermal stability.

• In the present days, many new refrigerants including halo-carbon compounds. Hydro-carbon compounds are
used for air conditioning and refrigeration applications.

• The suitability of refrigerant for a certain application is determined by its physical, thermodynamic, chemical
properties and by various practical factors.

• There is no one refrigerant which can be used for all types of applications i.e. there is no ideal refrigerant.

• If one refrigerant has certain good advantages, it will have some disadvantages also.

• Hence a refrigerant is chosen which has greater advantages and less disadvantages.
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 Desirable Properties of an Ideal Refrigerant
• We have discussed above that there is no ideal refrigerant.
• A refrigerant is said to be ideal if it has all of the following properties:
– Low Boiling point
– High critical temperature
– High latent heat of vaporization
– Low specific heat of liquid
– Low specific volume of vapor
– Non-corrosive to metal
– Non-flammable and non-explosive
– Non-toxic
– Low cost
– Easy to liquefy at moderate pressure and temperature
– Easy of locating leaks by odor or suitable indicator,
– and Mixes well with oil.
• The standard comparison of refrigerants, as used in the refrigeration industry, is based on
an evaporating temperature of -150C and a condensing temperature of +300C.

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Coefficient of Performance of a Refrigeration
• The coefficient of performance (briefly written as C.O.P)
is the ratio of heat extracted in the refrigerator to the
work done on the refrigerant. It is also known as
theoretical coefficient of performance.
• Mathematically, Theoretical C.O.P = Q/W
• Where,
– Q = Amount of heat extracted in the refrigerator (or the
amount of refrigeration produced, or the capacity of a
refrigerator), and
– W = Amount of work done.

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• For per unit mass, C.O.P = q/w The coefficient of
performance is the reciprocal of the efficiency (i.e. 1/ η) of a
heat engine.
• It is thus obvious, that the value of C.O.P is always greater
than unity.
• The ratio of actual C.O.P to the theoretical C.O.P is known as
relative coefficient of performance.
• Mathematically,
• Relative C.O.P = Actual C.O.P/Theoretical C.O.P

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A simple vapor compression refrigeration system
consists of the following equipments:
i) Compressor
ii) Condenser
iii) Expansion valve
iv) Evaporator.

•The vapors at low temperature and pressure enters

the compressor where it is compressed isentropically
and subsequently its temperature and pressure
increase considerably.

•This vapor after leaving the compressor enters the

condenser where it is condensed into high pressure
liquid and is collected in a receiver tank.

•From receiver tank it passes through the expansion

valve. Here it is throttled down to a lower pressure and
has a low temperature.

•After finding its way through expansion valve it finally

passes on to evaporator where it extracts heat from
the surroundings or circulating fluid being refrigerated
and vaporizes to low pressure vapor.

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 Simple Vapour Absorption System
•Some liquids like water have great affinity for absorbing large
quantities of certain vapors (NH3) and reduce the total
volume greatly. The absorption refrigeration system differs
fundamentally from vapor compression system only in the
method of compressing the refrigerant.

•An absorber, generator and pump in the absorption

refrigerating system replace the compressor of a vapor
compression system.

•Figure shows the schematic diagram of a vapor absorption

system. Ammonia vapor is produced in the generator at high
pressure from the strong solution of NH3 by an external
heating source.

•The water vapor carried with ammonia is removed in the

rectifier and only the dehydrated ammonia gas enters into the
condenser. High pressure NH3 vapor is condensed in the
condenser.

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• The cooled NH3 solution is passed through a throttle valve and the pressure and temperature of the
refrigerant are reduced below the temperature to be maintained in the evaporator.

• The low temperature refrigerant enters the evaporator and absorbs the required heat from the evaporator
and leaves the evaporator as saturated vapor.

• Slightly superheated, low pressure NH3 vapor is absorbed by the weak solution of NH3 which is sprayed in
the absorber as shown.

• Weak NH3 solution (aqua–ammonia) entering the absorber becomes strong solution after absorbing NH3
vapor and then it is pumped to the generator through the heat exchanger.

• The pump increases the pressure of the strong solution to generator pressure.

• The strong NH3 solution coming from the absorber absorbs heat form high temperature weak NH3 solution
in the heat exchanger.

• The solution in the generator becomes weak as NH3 vapor comes out of it.

• The weak high temperature ammonia solution from the generator is passed to the heat exchanger through
the throttle valve.

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 Air Conditioning
• Air Conditioning is not a process of only heating or cooling to
some desires temperature.

• Air Conditioning is dealing with conditioning or controlling the air.

• The complete process of air conditioning includes following

processes.
– Cooling or heating air.
– Addition or removal of humidity from air.
– Controlling movement of air.
– Purification of air.
– Addition of fresh air from outside.
– Distribution of air.
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• The Air Conditioning is defined as “ it is the simultaneous
control of temperature, air humidity, air movement and air
cleanliness”.

• There are two main application of it:

– For human comfort: to provide cooling or heating and
conditioning of air as per comfort of human being. This is
known as comfort air conditioning.

– For commercial use: to provide cooling or heating and

conditioning of air as per required in some engineering
manufacturing and processing. This is known as industrial air
conditioning.

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 Principle of Air conditioning
• In Air conditioning system, the device or unit provides Air
conditioning is called Air conditioner.

• This device continuously draw air from an indoors space

which is required to cool, it cools in refrigeration system
and discharge back into same indoor space.

• This continuous cyclic process of drawing, cooling and

recirculating of the cooled air maintains indoor space cool
at the required lower temp. which is required for comfort
cooling or industrial cooling.
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 Air conditioning system components
• The basic components of air conditioning are:
– Fans: for circulation of air.
– Filters: for cleaning air.
– Heating element: heating of air.
– Control system: it regulates automatically the amount of
cooling or heating.
– Grille: it adjust the direction of air in room.
– Tray: it collects condensed water.
– Refrigeration system: Provides cooling. It consist of
compressor, evaporator, condenser, expansion device etc.
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Classification of air conditioning system.

1. According to arrangement of equipment:

a) Unitary system: in this system different components of
Air conditioning system is manufactured and assembled
as unit in factory. Tis unit is installed in or near to space
to be conditioned.
b) Central system: in this system is used for conditioning of
air in theaters, cinemas, restaurants, exhibition hall, big
factory space etc.

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2. According to the purpose:
a. Comfort Air conditioning system
b. Industrial Air conditioning system
3. According to season of year:
a. Winter Air conditioning system: Air is heated and
humidified.
b. Summer Air conditioning system: Air is cooled and
dehumidified.

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 Window Air Conditioner

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 Split Air Conditioner

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• 1. Define refrigeration.
• Refrigeration is the process of reducing and maintaining the temperature of a body below the general temperature.
• 2. What is a refrigerator?
• Refrigerator is equipment used to reduce and maintain the temperature below atmospheric temperature by removing the heat from the space continuously.
• 3. Define refrigerant.
• Refrigerant is a fluid which absorbs the heat from the body and rejects the heat at high temperature.
• 4. Give some examples for refrigerant.
– Ammonia,
– carbon-di-oxide,
– Freon-12,
– Chloro fluoro carbon,
– Methyl chloride etc.
• 5. Define COP.
• COP is the ratio of heat extracted and work input. Coefficient of performance of a refrigerator (COP) = Heat extracted/ Work input
• 6. Give some properties of a good refrigerant.
• It should have low freezing point and boiling point. It should be easily liquefied. It should have high COP. It should absorb high latent heat. . State the function of a compressor
Compressor is used to compress the low pressure vapour refrigerant.
• 8. Mention some applications of refrigeration.
– In preserving food,
– fruits and drugs.
– Used in refineries.
– Manufacturing of ice.
– In manufacturing industries.
• 9. Define air conditioning.
Air conditioning is the process of conditioning the air according to the human comfort irrespective of external conditions.
• 10. Define relative humidity.
It is the ratio of water Vapour in a given volume of air at a given temperature, to the mass of water Vapour present in the same volume under same temperature of air when it is
fully saturated.
• 11. Define DBT
The temperature of air measured by the ordinary thermometer is called dry bulb temperature.
• 12. Define WBT
The temperature of air measured by the thermometer when it is covered by wet cloth is known as wet bulb temperature.

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• 13. Mention the types of air-conditioning.
o Comfort air conditioning.
o Industrial air conditioning.
o Key terms Refrigeration Air conditioning VCRS,
o VARS Refrigerant R12
o R22 Window air conditioner
o Split air conditioner
o DBT, WBT Humidity
o Psychrometry

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