US 12,570,885 B2Granted

Refrigerant compositions and use thereof in systems using flooded evaporators

AssigneeSolstice Advanced Materials US, Inc.

InventorsGustavo Pottker, Nilesh Purohit, Samuel Yana Motta, Kaimi Gao, Ankit Sethi, Ryan Hulse

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Abstract

Method for retrofitting an existing heat transfer system comprising adding to said existing system a refrigerant consisting essentially of: (i) from about 25% to about 45% by weight of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a); (ii) from 25% to about 35% by weight of trans-1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234ze(E)) and/or 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf); and (iii) from about 37% to about 46% by weight of a combination of difluoromethane (HFC-32) and pentafluoroethane (HFC-125), provided that the weight ratio of HFO-32:HFC-125 is from about 1.21:1 to about 0.8:1, wherein the refrigerant preferably is a non-flammable refrigerant having a GWP of 1350 or less.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A method for retrofitting an existing heat transfer system selected from refrigerant systems, air conditioning systems and chiller systems, said method comprising:

(a) providing an existing vapor compression system comprising:
(i) a refrigerant in the existing vapor compression system, said refrigerant being selected from the group consisting of R-22, R404A, and R507A;
(ii) a compressor having a compressor inlet receiving refrigerant vapor at a first pressure and a compressor outlet discharging refrigerant vapor at second pressure higher than said first pressure;
(iii) a condenser which receives said refrigerant vapor discharged from said compressor and which transfers heat out of said refrigerant vapor to produce liquid refrigerant;
(iv) a pressure reducing device which receives liquid refrigerant from said condenser and produces a mixture of liquid refrigerant and refrigerant vapor at a pressure below said second pressure;
and
(v) a flooded evaporator receiving:
(1) said mixture of liquid refrigerant and refrigerant vapor from said an expansion device, wherein said flooded evaporator produces refrigerant vapor feeding said compressor inlet;
(b) removing at least a substantial portion of the existing refrigerant from the existing vapor compression system;
and
(c) after said removing step, adding to said existing vapor compression system a new refrigerant consisting essentially of:
(i) from about 25% to about 45% by weight of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a);
(ii) from 25% to about 35% by weight of trans-1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234ze(E)) and/or 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf);
and
(iii) from about 37% to about 46% by weight of a combination of difluoromethane (HFC-32) and pentafluoroethane (HFC-125), provided that the weight ratio of HFO-32:HFC-125 is from about 1.21:1 to about 0.8:1,
and further provided that said refrigerant is a non-flammable refrigerant and that said refrigerant has a GWP of 1350 or less;
(d) after said adding step, evaporating at least a portion of said new refrigerant from the liquid phase to the vapor phase in said flooded evaporator;
and
(e) operating said existing vapor compression system with said new refrigerant at a capacity of at least about 90% relative to R-22 in said vapor compression system and wherein said compressor has a power consumption that is less than about 120% of the power consumption of R-22 in said existing vapor compression system.

16 more elements

A method for cooling comprising:

(a) providing a compression refrigeration system comprising:
(i) a liquid refrigerant and gaseous a refrigerant;
(ii) a compressor receiving said gaseous refrigerant at a first pressure and producing gaseous refrigerant at second pressure above said first pressure;
(ii) a condenser which receives gaseous refrigerant exiting said compressor and which rejects heat from said gaseous refrigerant to produce said liquid refrigerant;
(iii) a pressure reducer receiving said liquid refrigerant from said condenser and producing a mixture of said liquid and said gaseous refrigerant at a pressure below said second pressure;
(iv) optionally an accumulator which receives said mixture from said pressure reducer and separates said gaseous refrigerant from said liquid refrigerant and produces a liquid refrigerant stream and a gaseous refrigerant stream which flows to the low pressure side of said compressor;
and (v) a flooded evaporator receiving said liquid refrigerant from said pressure reducer and/or said accumulator when present and producing said gaseous refrigerant which flows to the low pressure side of said compressor and/or to the accumulator when present;
(b) evaporating said liquid refrigerant in said flooded evaporator to produce vaporous refrigerant, wherein:
(1) said liquid refrigerant in said flooded evaporator consists essentially of, on a weight basis with a tolerance of +/−0.5%:
(i) from 22.8% to 41.5% of HFC-134a;
(ii) from 20.7% to 23% of HFO-1234yf;
(iii) from 7.7% to 10.9% of HFO-1234ze(E);
(iv) from 11.6% to 23.6% of HFC-32;
and (iv) 15.1% to 25.0% of HFC-125;
and (2) said vaporous refrigerant in said flooded evaporator consists essentially of, on a weight basis with a tolerance of +/−0.5%:
(i) from 11.5% to 27.1% of HFC-134a;
(ii) from 15.7% to 19.3% of HFO-1234yf;
(iii) from 3.4% to 5.7% of HFO-1234ze(E);
(iv) from 24.8% to 23.6% of HFC-32;
and (iv) 23.3% to 31.1% of HFC-125;
and
(c) operating said system at a capacity of at least about 90% relative to R-22 in said system and wherein said compressor has a power consumption that is less than about 115% of the power consumption of R-22 in said system.

19 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/382,235Filed 20 Oct 2023 · division
Priority: 4 Nov 2020
Published: US 2024/0191118 A113 Jun 2024
Granted: 10 Mar 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

C09K 5/045
Comprising halogenated compounds: containing only fluorine as halogen
F25B 39/02
Evaporators; Condensers: evaporators
F25B 45/00
Arrangements for charging or discharging refrigerant
C09K 2205/122
Hydrocarbons: halogenated hydrocarbons

Family

Application63/109,412Us provisional application · filed 4 Nov 2020
Application17/518,769Parent of this division · filed 4 Nov 2021
US 2024/0191118 A1Pre-grant publication · published 13 Jun 2024
US 11,827,835 B2Parent of this division
US 2022/0169903 A1Published application
US 12,570,885 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.