Screening of Working Fluids in Binary and Ternary Mixtures for a Heat Pump Dishwasher

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Identifying low-GWP refrigerant mixtures for specific heat pump applications requires coupling working fluid selection with cycle performance evaluation. This work proposes a framework which connects refrigerant screening at the molecular level with heat pump system simulation for a dishwasher application. A multi-objective genetic algorithm simultaneously optimizes binary and ternary mixtures from 27 pure substances, using coefficient of performance (COP) and global warming potential (GWP) as competing objective functions. Each candidate is evaluated in a vapor-compression cycle model that includes pressure drop estimation at an evaporation temperature of 276.15 K and condensation temperatures ranging from 303.15 K to 348.15 K. Mixture properties are calculated from the multi-fluid mixture model; where adjusted binary interaction parameters are unavailable, the model is supplemented by COSMO-SAC-dsp as gE-model in the theoretically based departure function for predictive capability. The algorithm converges to R-290/RE-170 (0.854/0.146 mol/mol) as the optimal blend, achieving a COP equivalent to the pure R-290 reference. The near-pure behavior of the optimum reflects the application-specific constraints that penalize temperature glide, limiting the design space for mixture benefits. The methodology is transferable to applications where glide-tolerant heat exchangers may unlock larger mixture advantages.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number106925
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Journal of Refrigeration
Volume187
Early online date5 Apr 2026
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 5 Apr 2026
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-7908-4160/work/212487317
ORCID /0000-0003-3031-9138/work/212487939
ORCID /0000-0002-3465-3152/work/212491225
Mendeley af097349-73ae-3645-acd9-c664a261fc34
unpaywall 10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2026.106925
Scopus 105036429363

Keywords

Keywords

  • screening, Working fluid mixtures, dishwasher heat pump, Multi-fluid mixture model, Multi-objective genetic algorithm, COSMO-SAC