Experimental evaluation of a vapour compression refrigeration system using a nano-oil mixture of TiO2, Al2O3, and SiO2

Abstract Nanolubricants were used to improve the performance of refrigeration systems in a household refrigerator. In this study, a pure lubricant is used as the base compressor lubricant, and nanoparticles of TiO2, Al2O3, and SiO2 at 0.4g/L concentrations are used as nanolubricants in 50g isobutane (R600a) refrigerants. Power consumption was investigated alongside the COP. TiO2 nanolubricant has the highest COP of 2.8 and the lowest power consumption of 11.3% when compared to based lubricant. However, in terms of power consumption, SiO2 and Al2O3-nanolubricant outperformed the based lubricant by 4.5% and 7.7%, respectively. This suggests that a nanolubricant could be used in a refrigeration system to replace a based lubricant with R600a refrigerant.