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What Is A Secondary Refrigerant

A refrigerant is a working fluid used in the refrigeration cycle of air conditioning systems and heat pumps where in most cases they undergo a repeated phase transition from a liquid to a gas and back again.

The main function of the refrigerant is to absorb the heat from the indoor air, it transitions from a low-pressure gas to high-pressure liquid and transfer it to the atmosphere.

In this blog we are going to discuss about Refrigerant: Introduction, Important Properties, Types of Refrigerants, Primary and Secondary Refrigerant in detail.

Important Properties

  • Thermodynamics Properties
    1. Should have high latent heat of vaporization to minimise mass flow rate.
    2. Should have low specific heat of liquid and low specific volume of vapour.
    3. Should have positive evaporation pressure and reasonable low considering pressure.
    4. Should have critical temperature (as high as possible about the condensation temperature).
    5. It should be easily liquefied at moderate pressure and temperature.
  • Chemical Properties
    1. Should be non-toxic, non-inflammable, non-explosive and odourless.
    2. Should be chemically stable.
    3. Should not react unfavourably with lubricating oil, but should mix well with it.
    4. Should not have any reactions with moisturiser and the material of refrigeration plant.
    5. Should not have any bad effect in case of leakage.
  • Physical properties
    1. Should be such that its leak detection is easy.
    2. Thermal conductivity should be high.
    3. Viscosity in liquid and vapour state should be low.
  • Properties related to environment protection
    1. Should be environment friendly and should have low ozone depleting potential and low global warming potential.
  • Other considerations
    1. should be cheap and easily available.
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Two types of refrigerants are:

Primary Refrigerants

  • The refrigerant which takes part in the refrigeration cycle is known as the primary refrigerant.
  • Primary refrigerants are R-11, R-12, R-21, R-143a, etc.

Secondary Refrigerants

  • The refrigerants which are first cooled by primary refrigerant and then used for cooling purpose are called as secondary refrigerant.
  • Secondary refrigerants allow the amounts of environmentally harmful primary refrigerants to be minimized and contained in a restricted area.
  • Secondary refrigerants include water, air, brine, hydrocarbons, ammonia, and carbon dioxide, which are more environmentally benign than traditional refrigerants such as HCFCs.
  • In AC air is used as secondary refrigerant.
  • In the milk chilling plant brine water is used as secondary refrigerant plant.

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