Refrigerant, also known as refrigerant. It is a working substance that continuously cycles in a refrigeration system and achieves refrigeration through its own state changes. The refrigerant is vaporized by the heat absorbed by the cooling medium (water or air, etc.) in the evaporator, and the heat is transferred to the surrounding air or water in the condenser for condensation. Such as ammonia and water, lithium bromide and water, etc; Steam jet refrigerators use water as the refrigerant.
The rise in refrigerant prices is mainly due to three factors: firstly, the country has elevated fluorite as a strategic resource and implemented protective development on it; Secondly, the increase in consumption of air conditioners (including automotive air conditioners) has driven the demand for refrigerants; Finally, there is the factor of capital speculation. There is also an international factor contributing to the rise in refrigerant prices. According to the Montreal Protocol, the production capacity of low-end refrigerants (such as R22) in developed countries was basically shut down in 2010. Developed countries no longer use R22 as a refrigerant, but R22, as the main raw material for downstream fluoropolymers, still has a demand for R22. Due to the fact that the complete phaseout of R22 in developing countries will not take place until 2030, this is also a good thing for refrigerant manufacturers in developing countries. At the time of publication, the supply and demand gap of R22 was maintained until at least 2013, which also means that the prosperity of the refrigerant industry can last for at least two more years.
The refrigerant commonly used in China's air conditioning industry is HCFC substance R22. The basic physical properties of R290 and R22, such as standard boiling point, freezing point, and critical point, are very close, and they have the basic conditions to replace R22. When in a saturated liquid state, the density of R290 is smaller than that of R22, so the perfusion amount of R290 is smaller at the same volume. Experiments have shown that the perfusion amount of R290 at the same system volume is about 43% of that of R22. In addition, due to the fact that the latent heat of vaporization of R290 is about twice that of R22, the refrigerant circulation of the refrigeration system using R290 is smaller. R290 has good material compatibility and is well compatible with copper, steel, cast iron, lubricants, etc. In the future, China will further increase the pilot efforts for the renovation of air conditioning production lines using R290 refrigerant. With the continuous deepening of research on the application technology of R290 and the accumulation of usage experience, the environmentally friendly refrigerant R290 will have broad market application prospects in the future.
