Very Low GWP Refrigerant R-516A for R-134a replacement in Commercial Refrigeration

Efforts continue to find alternative next generation refrigerants with low environmental impact. While Global Warming Potential (GWP) is an easy indicator to screen for refrigerants with low direct CO2 emissions, there are other important aspects to consider such as safety, performance, compatibility, stability, etc. Among the different sectors within the HVAC&R industry, the refrigeration sector is experiencing earlier transition compared to some of the other applications due to relatively high GWP of the incumbent refrigerants such as R-404A and R-134a. R-516A, which is a mildly flammable (A2L) azeotropic refrigerant with GWP of 131 (AR5) and is a near drop-in of R-134a, was evaluated in a commercially available beverage cooler. Performance of R-516A is compared to the R-134a baseline as well as other nonflammable and mildly flammable HFO solutions