Comparative energy and exergy analysis of

R744, R404A and R290 refrigeration cycles

..............................................................................................................................................................

J.A. Shilliday1,2,*, S.A. Tassou2 and N. Shilliday1

1
Shilliday Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 12 Ballinahonemore Road, Armagh BT60
1ED, UK
2
School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PU,
UK
.............................................................................................................................................
Abstract
A detailed energy and exergy analysis of the low global warming potential refrigerants R744 and R290

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was preformed and compared against the commercial refrigerant R404A in a single-stage vapour
compression cycle and R744 in a two-stage vapour compression cycle with an internal heat exchanger.

Keywords: R744; exergy; refrigeration; CO2; irreversibility

*Corresponding author:
jason@shillidayref.com Received 23 March 2009; revised 11 May 2009; accepted 11 May 2009
................................................................................................................................................................................

1 INTRODUCTION magnitude. Second law exergy analysis can be used to determine

both the location and magnitude of the irreversibilities relative to
The refrigeration industry has changed immensely since chlor- the other processes or components in the cycle. This makes
ofluorocarbons (CFCs) such as R12 were identified as a source exergy analysis a powerful tool in the design, optimization, and
of ozone layer destruction and were replaced by hydrochloro- performance evaluation of refrigeration cycles [3].
fluorocarbons (HCFCs) and more recently by hydrofluorocar- There have been a number of studies on the exergy analysis
bons (HFCs) such as R404A. Most HFCs although have zero of refrigeration cycles. The exergy analysis of an ammonia
ozone depletion potential (ODP), possess a high global vapour compression refrigeration system was carried out by
warming potential (GWP) and contribute significantly to the Yumrutas et al. [3]. They reported that evaporating and con-
total greenhouse gas emissions from refrigeration systems. For densing temperatures had a strong effect on the exergy losses
this reason, natural refrigerants are now being considered as a in the evaporator and condenser but little effect on the other
potential solution for the future. Natural refrigerants possess components of the cycle. A paper by Stegou-Sagia and
environmental-friendly properties such as zero ODP and low Paignigiannia [4] compared the performance of refrigerants
GWP when compared with traditional CFCs and HCFCs. R-404A, R-410A, R-410B and R-507, as alternatives to R-22.
Of the number of natural refrigerants available, R744 They concluded that the exergy behaviour of these refrigerants
(carbon dioxide) has gained considerable attention since was generally inferior to that of R22. Aprea et al. [5] carried
Lorentzen and Pettersen [1] published the first experimental out exergy analysis of R-22, R-407C and R-507 for a variable
results of a prototype transcritical R744 refrigeration system speed compressor refrigeration system. R-22 provided the best
with internal heat exchanger. In a subsequent publication [2], performance overall, with R-407C being the best from the
the energy performance of the system was demonstrated by alternatives. Yang et al. [6] analysed thermodynamically a tran-
exergy flow charts indicating higher exergy destruction for the scritical carbon dioxide cycle with and without an expander. In
gas cooling and throttling processes but lower exergy destruc- the expander cycle, the main exergy losses occurred in the gas
tion for the compression and evaporation processes when com- cooling and compression processes. A transcritical heat pump
pared with a R-12 system. system for simultaneous heating and cooling operation was
First law energy analysis determines thermodynamic efficiency analysed by Sarkar et al. [7]. They found that the temperature
and can be used for comparative analysis of alternative cycles; the difference between the heat exchangers (evaporator/condenser/
coefficient of performance (COP) is calculated and used for this gas coolers) contributed to more than 90% of the irreversibil-
purpose. Irreversibilities within these cycles reduce the cycle’s ities. Li and Groll [8] preformed an exergy analysis on a
COP and must be minimized in order to increase a cycle’s effi- carbon dioxide/ammonia cascade refrigeration system and
ciency. First law energy analysis does not determine where these found the optimal cascade condenser temperature to be
irreversibilities occur, in which component or process, or the 2158C based on the minimization of exergy destruction.

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2009, 4, 104– 111

# The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
doi:10.1093/ijlct/ctp014 Advance Access Publication 16 June 2009 104
 Comparative energy and exergy analysis

In another paper by Yang et al. [9] the exergy efficiency of a

two-stage transcritical carbon dioxide cycle with an expander
was found to be 9.1% lower than that of a single-stage cycle
with an expander. A recent study by Cavallini and Zilio [10]
found that the process that mostly penalizes the carbon dioxide
transcritical cycle compared with a R-22 cycle was throttling.
This paper also discussed that the introduction of two-stage
compression process with a gas intercooler between compression
stages would decrease the work of the compressors and reduce
both compression and heat rejection irreversibilities.
A paper by Girotto et al. [11] considered the in-field per-
formance of an all R744 system compared with a traditional
R404A system. The R744 system operated transcritically when
the ambient temperature rose above 158C and was estimated to

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have an annual energy consumption of 10% higher than that Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a single-stage refrigeration cycle.
of a R-404A system. This was attributed to the increased
energy consumption of the medium temperature refrigeration
equipment during the summer months when the ambient
temperature rose above 158C.
To date it is generally accepted that a transcritical R744 system
has a lower COP compared with a R-404A system. In this paper
a comparative exergy and energy analysis is preformed on tran-
scritical R744 cycles for commercial refrigeration use and com-
pared with R-404A and the Hydrocarbon R-290. This study aims
to identify the worst performing components in a transcritical
R744 cycle and indicate how the exergy destruction in the cycle
can be decreased by introducing variations to the basic cycle.
The EES software was used as the basis for the thermodynamic
analysis of the cycles and system components [12].

2 EXERGY AND ENERGY ANALYSIS

Figure 2. Pressure – enthalpy diagram for R744, R404A and R290
2.1 Vapour compression cycles refrigerants.
A commercial refrigeration system usually operates using a
vapour compression cycle, transferring heat from a low tempera-
ture region to a high temperature region. The basic vapour com-
pression cycle consists of four components, a compressor,
condenser/gas cooler, expansion device and evaporator. The sche-
matic diagram of the cycle and the corresponding pressure–
enthalpy diagrams for refrigerants R744, R-404A and R-290 at an
evaporation temperature of 2108C and a condensing/gas cooling
temperature of 408C are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively.
Figure 2 clearly shows that the R744 cycle evaporates and the gas
cools at much higher pressures than both R-404A and R-290.
Figure 3 shows the inclusion of a liquid/suction line heat
exchanger which is used to provide sub-cooling to the refriger-
ant liquid and protect the compressor from liquid slugging that
can damage the valves. The P–h diagram of the cycle is shown
in Figure 4. To determine the performance of the cycle with
internal heat exchange, enthalpy-based heat transfer effectiveness
was used. The actual heat transfer from the internal heat
exchanger is obtained by either the energy given off by the gas
cooler discharge line or that received by the suction line. Heat Figure 3. Schematic diagram for a single-stage cycle using an internal heat
transfer effectiveness is defined as the ratio of the actual heat exchanger.

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J.A. Shilliday et al.

Figure 5. Schematic diagram for a two-stage cycle with inter-cooling.

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Figure 4. Pressure – enthalpy diagram for the R744 internal heat exchange
cycle.

transfer rate in a heat exchanger to the thermodynamically

limited maximum possible heat transfer shown by Equation (1).

q
1¼ ð1Þ
qmax

The maximum possible heat transfer is thermodynamically

limited to the minimum of (h3 2 h3,min) and (h1,max 2 h1)
shown in Figure 4.

qmax ¼ minfh3  h3;min ; h1;max  h1 g Figure 6. Pressure – enthalpy diagram for the R744 two-stage refrigeration
cycle.

The enthalpy of points h3,IHX and h1,IHX can be determined

from:

h3;IHX ¼ h3  qmax 1 ð2Þ

h1;IHX ¼ qmax 1 þ h1 ð3Þ

where T, temperature, h, enthalpy, q, specific heat transfer, 1

heat exchanger effectiveness, the subscripts ‘MIN’ and ‘MAX’
demote minimum and maximum values, respectively.
Kim et al. [13] and Huff et al. [14] discussed the benefits of
the internal heat exchange cycle and showed that it can
produce significant performance improvement over the basic
single-stage cycle. The efficiency of R744 systems can also be
improved using a two-stage cycle. Figure 5 shows a schematic
diagram of a two-stage cycle. The corresponding P– h diagram Figure 7. Schematic diagram for a two-stage cycle with an internal heat
is shown in Figure 6. In this cycle, the refrigerant is com- exchanger and inter-cooler.
pressed in two stages with inter-cooling between the stages. For
the purposes of this paper it is assumed that the refrigerant To analyse the energy efficiency of the cycles, the coefficient
after the first stage compression is cooled to a temperature of of performance (COP) can be calculated from:
108C above the saturation temperature corresponding to the
intermediate pressure. A two-stage cycle with inter-cooling and
internal heat exchange is shown in Figure 7 and the corre- qev h1  h4
COP ¼ ¼ ð4Þ
sponding P– h diagram in Figure 8. w h2  h1

106 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2009, 4, 104– 111

 Comparative energy and exergy analysis

be calculated using the equations in Tables 1 and 2, respectively

[3,4]:
The total energy destruction of the cycle can be determined
by adding the exergy destruction in each process of the cycle.

XT ¼ Xcomp þ Xc=gc þ Xexp þ Xev ð6Þ

The exergy destruction ratio can be defined as the ratio exergy

destroyed per unit of work input and can be calculated from:
X
XRatio ¼ ð7Þ
w

The exergy destruction ratio can be calculated for the total

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cycle as well as the individual components.
The total exergy destruction per unit of refrigeration effect
Figure 8. Pressure – enthalpy diagram for the R744 two-stage refrigeration
can be determined from:
cycle with and internal heat exchanger.
XT
Xqev ¼ ð8Þ
qev denotes specific cooling capacity of evaporation process qev
(kJ/kg), w, specific compressor work (kJ/kg).
The useful maximum work potential of a system at a speci- where XT is the total cycle exergy destruction, Xcomp, com-
fied specific state is called exergy. A reversible process will pression exergy destruction, Xc/gc, condensation/gas cooling
return to its initial state without any form of exchange with exergy destruction, Xexp, expansion exergy destruction, Xev,
the environment. If the process experiences heat losses and/or evaporation exergy destruction, XRatio, exergy destruction ratio.
pressure drops it becomes irreversible and will not return to its
initial state. These irreversibilities destroy exergy and generate
entropy and can be calculated as in [15]: 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

X ¼ Ta DS ð5Þ 3.1 Input data and assumptions

The thermodynamic simulations were carried out on a mass
and energy balance basis with each component in the process
where X, exergy destroyed, Ta, ambient temperature, DS, treated as a control volume. The following assumptions were
entropy generated. made:
The irreversibilities or exergy destruction for each of the
individual components in a single-stage and two-stage vapour (1) Negligible pressure drop and heat loss in-between
compression cycle without and with internal heat exchange can processes.

Table 1. Exergy balance equations for the basic single-stage cycle and the two-stage cycle.
Basic single-stage cycle Two-stage cycle

Compression Xcomp ¼ Ta ðs2  s1 Þ Xcomp ¼ Ta ðs2  s1 Þ þ Ta ðs3  s4 Þ

Condensing Xc=gc ¼ h2  h3  Ta ðs2  s3 Þ Xc=gc ¼ h4  h5  Ta ðs4  s5 Þ
/gas cooling
Expansion Xexp ¼ Ta ðs4  s3 Þ Xexp ¼ Ta ðs6  s5 Þ
Evaporation Xev ¼ Ta ðs1  s4 Þ þ ðh4  h1 Þ  TTpa Xev ¼ Ta ðs1  s6 Þ þ ðh6  h1 Þ  TTpa

Table 2. Exergy balance equations for the internal heat exchanger cycle and the two-stage internal heat exchange cycle.
Internal heat exchanger cycle Two-stage cycle with internal heat
exchanger

Compression Xcomp ¼ Ta ðs2;IHX  s1;IHX Þ Xcomp ¼ Ta ðs2  s1 Þ þ Ta ðs4  s3 Þ

Condensing/ Xc=gc ¼ h2;IHX  h3  Ta ðs2;IHX  s3 Þ Xc=gc ¼ h4  h5  Ta ðs4  s5 Þ
gas cooling
Expansion Xexp ¼ Ta ðs4;IHX  s3;IHX Þ Xexp ¼ Ta ðs7  s6 Þ
Evaporation Xev ¼ Ta ðs1  s4;IHX Þ þ ðh4;IHX  h1 Þ  TTpa Xev ¼ Ta ðs8  s7 Þ þ ðh7  h8 Þ  TTpa

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2009, 4, 104– 111 107

J.A. Shilliday et al.

(2) Compression process has an isentropic efficiency of 75%.

(3) Processes in each component are assumed to be at steady
state with negligible changes in potential or kinetic energy.
(4) State 1 at the start of compression is a saturated vapour.
(5) State 3 at the end of condensation is a saturated liquid.
(6) Expansion process is isenthalpic.
(7) Ambient temperature is 208C.
(8) Refrigerated environment temperature is the evaporation
temperature þ 58C (To ¼ Tev þ 5)

The low critical temperature of R744 of 31.18C means the cycle

operates in a super-critical state at high ambient temperatures
and a sub-critical state at low ambient temperatures. No satur-
ation condition exists in the super-critical state; therefore a

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gas-cooling process replaces the condensing process. This Figure 10. Variation of coefficient of performance with evaporating
process is well-documented in [1,16]. The S-shaped isotherms temperature.
in the supercritical state create an optimum heat rejection
pressure for the gas cooler, which maximizes the enthalpy
difference across the evaporator and the cycle COP. The calcu- condensing temperature of 258C. At the heat rejection temp-
lation of this optimum pressure is documented in [17,18]. The erature of 408C, R744 operates in the transcritical mode which
optimal heat rejection pressure for transcritical operation was decreases its performance further when compared with the
calculated over a range of gas-cooling temperatures using an other two refrigerants. Figure 10 also shows that as the evapor-
iteration process. ating temperature increases, the COP of the R744 cycle deviates
further from the COP of R290 and R404A.
Figure 11 compares the exergy ratio for the cycle presented
3.2 Exergy analysis of R744, R404A and R290 in Figure 1. R290 displays the lowest exergy ratio over the
cycles range of condensing and evaporating temperatures considered.
Figure 9 shows the variation of the COP with condensing R744 displays the highest exergy ratio which increases signifi-
temperature for the three refrigerants. As the condensing temp- cantly when the cycle moves from sub-critical operation, con-
erature is increased, the COP is reduced for all the refrigerants. densing temperature of 258C to transcritical operation,
R290 displays the highest COP over the range of condensing gas-cooling temperature of 408C. Figure 12 displays the total
temperatures simulated, followed by R404A and then R744. exergy destruction per unit of refrigeration effect. Again, in
Figure 10 presents the variation of the COP with evapor- line with Figures 9 and 11, R744 is the worst performing
ation temperature using condensing temperatures of 258C and refrigerant.
408C for R290 and R404A and a condensing and gas cooling The exergy analysis of each individual component in the
temperature of 258C and 408C, respectively, for R744. R290 cycle will enable identification of the worst performing pro-
shows the highest COP for both condensing temperatures fol- cesses. Figures 13 – 15 compare the individual component
lowed by R404A. R744 exhibits the lowest COP for the exergy destruction ratio of R744, R290 and R404A respectively.

Figure 9. Variation of coefficient of performance with condensing temperature Figure 11. Variation of exergy destruction ratio with evaporating
at an evaporating temperature of 2108C. temperature.

108 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2009, 4, 104– 111

 Comparative energy and exergy analysis

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Figure 15. Comparison of contribution of individual components to the total
Figure 12. Variation of total exergy destruction per unit refrigerating effect cycle exergy destruction ratio for refrigerant R404A.
with evaporating temperature.
and R290, respectively. For R404A and R290, the compressor
was the worst performing component at the 258C condensing
temperature, both having exergy ratios of 24%.
Increasing the heat rejection temperature to 408C moves
R744 into the transcritical region and this increases the exergy
ratio of the condenser/gas cooler from 16% to 34%, making the
gas cooling process the worst process in the cycle in terms of
exergy destruction (Figure 13). For the R290 cycle (Figure 14),
the condensation process accounts for the highest exergy ratio
of above 2158C evaporating temperature. For the R404A cycle
(Figure 15), the expansion valve is the worst performing com-
ponent until an evaporation temperature of approximately
2138C, above which the condensation process becomes the
worst process in terms of exergy destruction in the cycle.
Figure 13. Comparison of contribution of individual components to the total
cycle exergy destruction ratio for refrigerant R744. 3.3 R744 internal heat exchanger cycle
Figure 16 shows the results of exergy analysis of a R744 single-
stage cycle with and without an internal heat exchanger of
75% effectiveness. It can be seen that overall the internal heat
exchanger decreases cycle exergy ratio slightly. This is because

Figure 14. Comparison of contribution of individual components to the total

cycle exergy destruction ratio for refrigerant R290.

At the 258C condensing temperature, the expansion valve for

the R744 contributes the highest percentage exergy ratio, an Figure 16. Exergy ratio destruction of single-stage R744 cycle with a 0% and
average of 25%, compared with 14% and 12.5% for R404A 75% effective internal heat exchanger, gas cooling at 408C.

International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2009, 4, 104– 111 109

J.A. Shilliday et al.

of the increase in exergy ratio from the gas-cooling process. As

shown in Figure 4, the internal heat exchanger increases the
discharge temperature of the compressor which in turn
increases the temperature difference over the gas-cooling
process and exergy destruction. This cycle, however, reduces
the exergy destroyed during the expansion process owing to
the reduced temperature differential from cycle sub-cooling.
The sub-cooling effect increases the enthalpy difference across
the evaporator and leads to approximately 5% increase in the
cycle COP.

3.4 Two-stage R744 cycle

Figure 17 shows the component and total exergy analysis of a

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two-stage R744 cycle compared with a basic single-stage cycle.
In contrast to the increase in exergy destruction during the Figure 18. Exergy destruction ratio of single-stage R744 and a two-stage
R744 cycle with 75% efficient internal heat exchanger.
gas-cooling process for the internal heat exchange cycle,
the two-stage cycle decreases the exergy destruction. Splitting
the compression into two separate stages decreases the total
enthalpy difference across the compression process, and across
the gas cooler. The two compression stages increase the exergy
destruction owing to total compression by around 6%. Both
the exergy destruction because of the expansion and evapor-
ation processes remained unchanged. Overall this cycle
decreases the total cycle exergy ratio by an average of 4%.

3.5 Two-stage R744 cycle with internal heat

exchanger
Figure 18 shows the component exergy analysis of the two-
stage cycle with a 75% effective internal heat exchanger as
shown in Figure 7. The cycle utilizes the decrease in exergy
destruction owing to the expansion process in the internal heat
exchanger cycle as well as an increase in enthalpy difference Figure 19. Variation of the coefficient of performance of the various cycles
across the evaporation process. The cycle also utilizes the considered in this paper with evaporating temperature at a condensing/gas
reduction in exergy destruction owing to the gas-cooling cooling temperature of 408C.
process in the two-stage cycle. Overall, this combined cycle
reduces the total cycle exergy ratio by an average of 12%. This Figure 19 shows the variation of the COP with evaporating
increases the overall efficiency of the cycle. temperature for the cycles considered in this paper. It can be
seen that the COP of the R744 cycle is lower than that of the
R404A and R290 cycles across the whole range of evaporating
temperatures. The COP of the two-stage R744 cycle with an
internal heat exchanger is much higher than that of the single-
stage cycle but it is still lower than the COP of R404A and
R290 cycles. The performance of the R744 cycles improves as
the evaporating temperature reduces.

4 CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a comparative energy and exergy analysis
of refrigerants R744, R404A and R290 operating in a single-
stage vapour compression refrigeration cycle for use in
medium temperature retail food applications. Results are also
Figure 17. Exergy destruction ratio of single-stage and two-stage R744 cycle. presented for a two-stage transcritical R744 cycle with internal

110 International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 2009, 4, 104– 111

 Comparative energy and exergy analysis

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