1.

0
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Importance of Energy Saving
In the last few decades, the world electricity generation and consumption became
a main issue of discussion among researchers, politicians and environmental act
ivist because of increasing in its generation and consumption consequently affec
ted the cost of electric generation paid by the government in term of fuel subsi
dization and also the use of fuel in high quantity could be contributed to the g
lobal warming effect. The world trend of electricity generation is increasingly
averagely about 4.45% per year from 1980 to 2010 with the total of generation in
1980 is about 8050 TWh and in 2010 the total generation is 20000 TWh (Fettweis
& Zimmermann, 2008). This is expected that the world total electricity generatio
n to be increased at 25030 TWh in 2020. There are three main sectors of electric
ity consumer worldwide; Industry, Residential and Commercial. In United States f
or example, electric consumption in residential sector accounted 38% of the tota
l generation in 2009 (Fettweis & Zimmermann, 2008). In European countries, resid
ential sector consume 29% of the total electric generation in 2005 ((EEA), 2009)
. Meanwhile, in Malaysia residential sector uses about 21% of the total country
electricity generation in 2009 (Commision, 2009). Figure 1(a) and (b) show elec
tricity consumption in US and Malaysia for three main consumers in 2009.

(a)
(b)
Figure 1: Electricity consumption for three main consumer in 2009 (a) United Sta
te and (b) Malaysia
Government s policy on energy saving have been implemented in many countries world
wide with the purpose to reduce energy consumption, consequently reduce cost and
also greenhouse gas emission. European Commission Energy leads the energy polic
ies and activities in European countries. In United State, the US Department of
Energy leads the policies in energy saving. Meanwhile, in Malaysia Energy Commis
sioner is the responsible agency developing and enforcing energy saving s policies
. In Malaysia, refrigerator and air conditioner use 22% and 14% respectively (Ta
ha, 2003). Many countries worldwide agreed that energy consumption can be reduce
d by implementing energy efficient products in residential and product sector. A
mong all other appliances, refrigerator and air conditioner are the products tha
t are closely related to mechanical engineering although several components such
as electric motor and control system are outside the scope of mechanical engine
ering and this overview is intended to be focused on refrigeration system only.
1.2 Types of Refrigerant
The working fluid in refrigerator is called refrigerant which employed as the he
at absorber or cooling agent. The refrigerant absorbs heat by evaporating at low
temperature and pressure and removes the heat by condensing at high temperature
and pressure. The most common refrigerant used at early stage of refrigerator d
esign was familiar solvent and volatile fluids. Nearly all these early refrigera
nts were flammable, toxic, or both, and some were also highly reactive. In devel
oping refrigerant for refrigeration process, propane (R-290) was marketed in rep
lacing ammonia (R-717) as refrigerant. Propane is considered as neutral chemical
, consequently no corrosive action occur and is neither deleterious nor obnoxiou
s and should occasion require, the engineer can work in its vapour without conve
nience. Carbon dioxide (R-744) has been used in the 1920s by Carrier and Waterfi
ll in field of positive-displacement and centrifugal compression machine for chi
llers operation in air conditioning system. Besides that, they were used of ammon
ia and water (R-718), sulphur dioxide (R-764), carbon tetrachloride (R-10) and d
ielene (1,2-dichloroethene,R-1130). From these refrigerant, there was only R-113
0 can work with centrifugal machine. The rest were unable to work properly due t
o several finding such as low performance, safety reason and incompatible with m
etals (Calm, 2008; Radermacher & Kim, 1996)

In 1930, the fluorocarbon refrigerants were introduced by Midgley and Henne (Cal
m, 2008) Midgley was distinguished by a shift to fluorochemicals which concerned
on safety and durability of refrigerant that focuses on removing of neither tox
ic compound nor flammable property. One year later, the dichlorodifluoromethane
(R-12) were introuduced as commercial refrigerant used in refrigerator followed
by R-11 in one year later.
Since hydrocarbons (HCs) were not suitable to be used as refrigerant fluids in t
he refrigerator due to their flamability and toxic, the use of HCs was discarded
of chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) dominated the second generation of refrigerant w
ith application was more on residential and small commercial air conditioners an
d heat pumps. However, ammonia remains in application for large scale of system.
In 1974, Rowland and Molina advanced the hypothesis that anthropogenic emission
of certain chlorinated and bromated compounds, particularly chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), could accumulate in the stratosphe
re (the part of the atmosphere located at an altitude of roughly 12km to 50km) a
nd substantially deplete the ozone layer that shields the earth. Therefore, rese
arch during the early 1970s, linking CFCs to stratospheric ozone depletion, was
particularly striking because of their previous characterization as the ideal re
frigerant (Molina & Rowland, 1974; Purvis, Hunt, & Drake, 2001).
The discovery of the ozone deflecting properties of CFCs and HCFCs refrigerants,
and their global warming potential (GWP) lead to the Vienna Convention (1985),
the Montreal Protocol (1987), London Amendent (1990) and the Copenhagen Amendmen
t (1992), the Vienna Adjustment (1995) and the Montreal Amendments (1997), which
scheduled the end of production and use of these refrigerant by 1995 and 2030 r
espectively (http://rivm.nl bibliotheek/rapporten/48150511.html).
Development of new refrigerant becomes crucial as the effect of the end of the p
roduction fo CFCs and HCFCs refrigerant. Radermaker and Kim reported that the ef
fort to explore for new refrigeration was started since 1960s with two objective
s: (1) achieving a low operator temperature with a moderated pressure ratio duri
ng single-stage compression and (2) conserving energy when the refrigeration dut
y consists of cooling a fluid stream through a large temperature range (Radermac
her & Kim, 1996). The most preferred refrigerant was HFC134a and expected will b
e used for long term. However, observation was found that HFC134a and expected w
ill be used for long term. However, observation was found that HFC134a systems t
olerate far less contaminants that CFC12 systems did. Therefore, another potenti
al refrigerant was identified to replace CFC12. It was HFC152a.
However, fluorochemical is still become the primary focus and the attention was
more on the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for the longer term. The production
of HFCs R-134a is a very attractive as a refrigerant because it has zero ozone
depleting potential as well as low direct global warming potential (GWP). For th
e sake of the EU s Kyoto Protocol obligations, the European Commission issued a di
rective in 2006 mandating the phase-out of R-134a in mobile air conditioning sys
tems and its replacement by refrigerants with a GWP no higher than 150. As of 20
11, a ban on R-134a systems applies to all new models, and as of 2017, to all ca
rs in European countries because of indirect radioactive effect for GWP is 1300
as tabulated in Table 1.
Table 1: ODP and GWP and other properties of selected refrigerant
Refrigerant
Ozone depleting potential (ODP) *ODP CFC-11=1 Global Warming p
otential (GWP): indirect and direct radiative effects *GWP CO2=1
Toxity
Flammability
CFC-12 1
6600
Low
Zero
HCFC-22 0.5
1300
Low
Zero
HFC-134a
Zero
1300
Low
Zero
HC R290 Zero
Zero
Low
High
R717
Zero
Zero
High
Zero
Source: Purvis et al. 2001
1.3 Energy Use in Refrigeration System
It has discussed in the previous page that with the increasing the numbers of re
frigerators worldwide, the energy consumption also increase. The issue of increm
ent in energy consumption has been discussed by researchers, politicians and als

o government leaders. This is because of energy generation is directly related t

o the use of fuel and also contributes to greenhouse effect as a result of high
level of combustion. There are many literatures that focus on energy in refriger
ator with the purpose to reduce energy consumption. The effort became popular af
ter oil price shock in the 1970s and in past few decades and the oil shows fluct
uation in its price. History of crude oil price is available at (http://www.ioga
.com/Special/crudeoil_Hist.htm)
With the concern of reduction greenhouse gas emission by reducing CO2 content in
atmosphere, the quantity of fuel combustion to produce energy should be reduced
(Shekarchian, Moghavvemi, Mahlia, & Mazandarani, 2011). Since refrigerators and
air conditioners contributes larger energy use in domestic, these types of home
appliances should be more efficient in energy use. In order to achieve energy e
fficiency in Malaysian refrigeration system, Masjuki (Masjuki, Mahlia, & Choudhu
ry, 2001) reported that by implementing minimum energy efficiency standards as p
rocedure and regulations that prescribe the energy performance of manufactured p
roducts, sometimes prohibiting the sales of products that are less efficient tha
n a minimum level. Prediction of CO2 reduction also was estimated with 30336719
kg CO2 produced in 2012 compared with 72357910 kg CO2 in 2003 (Mahlia, Masjuki,
Choudhury, & Saidur, 2001). Energy label are informative labels affixed to manuf
actured products to describe the product s energy performance. The important of en
ergy labels that it will enable consumers to compare the energy efficiency of ap
pliances on a fair and equitable basis. They also encourage manufacturers to imp
rove the energy performance of appliances (Mahlia, Masjuki, & Choudhury, 2002b,
2002c). The implementation of energy label in Malaysia is started since 2005 for
domestic refrigerator and open to all manufacturers on voluntary basis. The lab
el is similar to type B which has been investigated by Mahlia (Mahlia, Masjuki,
& Choudhury, 2002a). The same author also conducted research for projected elect
ric saving form implementing minimum energy standard for household refrigerators
in Malaysia (Mahlia, Masjuki, Saidur, & Amalina, 2004; Mahlia, Masjuki, Saidur,
Choudhury, & NoorLeha, 2003).
The minimum energy efficiency standards for appliances have been enacted in othe
r countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Phil
ippine, Russia and US. The program can be mandatory or voluntary. However, most
countries have adopted mandatory standards while several countries such as Brazi
l, Japan and Korea have successfully implemented voluntary standards. China cont
ributes largest refrigerator sale worldwide with the household refrigerator reac
hed 15.99 million in 2002. Refrigerator accounted for more than 32% of the total
residential electricity use in China with the total consumption of 1620.o TWh a
year (Lu, 2006; Tao & Yu, 2011). Chinese has established their energy efficienc
y standards for household refrigerator since 2003 and replaced by 2008. Replacem
ent or review of the energy efficiency improvement per year is under considerati
on for all manufacturers.
1.4 Effort To Improve Refrigeration System
Since the domestic refrigerators were introduced in US in early 20th century, th
e demand of such appliances was increased from year to year. It was recorded tha
t from 1919 to 1924 there was over 100% increases in sales each year and orders
in 1924 were 350% higher than a year earlier. Currently, there are about 1000 mi
llion units of refrigerator worldwide. There have been many researches and devel
opment since a new domestic refrigerator was discussed in 1923 by Anon (Anon, 19
23) which was concentrated on insulation method by using balsa wood and quality
in sealing method. In the 1950s, urethane foam had been developed and in early o
f 1960s the rigid urethane foam was produced with fluorinated hydrocarbon expand
ing agents such as R-11 and R-12. Because of environmental concern under Montrea
l Protocol for ozone depletion by CFCs, development of nonfluorocarbon of blowin
g agent was discussed. Vacuum insulation also was seen as an option with commerc
ial potential. However, the production of vacuum insulation was concerned of the
cost of production. In 2004, Johnson reported the comparison effect of blowing
agent selection on energy consumption and the life cycle climate performance (LC
CP) of typical European refrigerator (Johnson, 2004). Two types of blowing agent
were analyse which is HFC-245fa and pentane for the same product specification

with considering 10% of form go to land fills instead of current practice with 6
0%. The author found that with current foam formulations, the use of HFC-245fa a
s a blowing agent, instead of cyclopentane and n-pentane blend, offers a signifi
cant advantage in energy consumption for refrigerator/freezers although the GWP
for HFC-245fa is high compared with pentane blend.
Besides the insulation of the refrigerator, components efficiency also became th
e main discussion among researchers. Generally, refrigerator consists of four ma
in component connected in sequence order to form closed system. The components a
re compressor, condenser, capillary tube and evaporator. Among these four compon
ents, compressor is considering as the main part in the system that working to c
ompress refrigerant and produce primary force to circulate the refrigerant throu
ghout the system. The compressor consume electric source and internal design is
moderately complex. Figure 2 shows common working principles of reciprocating co
mpressor that typically used in domestic refrigerator. The measure of compressor
performance in domestic refrigerator is energy efficiency ratio (EER). Energy E
fficiency Ratio is the ratio of the cooling capacity of a refrigerator in Britis
h Thermal Unit (BTU) per hour, to the total electrical input (in watts) under ce
rtain specified tests.
Figure 2: Working principle of common reciprocating compressor
The most concentration of research on the compressor domestic refrigerator in th
e past few decades was in compressor valve dynamics, lubrication, noise emission
and vibration and compressor efficiency. Many literatures can be obtained for s
uch field of study in compressor for domestic refrigerator. Shaffer (Shaffer & L
ee, 1976) was reported energy consumption in quarter horsepower hermetic refrige
rator compressor by analysing several factors of losses. The author was recommen
ded that motor efficiency should be increased, compressor geometry must be impro
ved and reduce suction gas heating. Karll (Karll, 1976) from Danfos, one of the
main compressor manufacturer reported that there are three main areas to be tack
led:
Mechanical losses, electrical losses amd gas circulation losses in order to impr
ove company s annual production. Riffe (Riffe, 1976) was improved efficiency of re
ciprocating refrigerator compressor up to 40% with introducing unitary connectin
g rod wrist pin anf notched piston and cylinder design. Schroeder was introduced
design improvement of electric motor for reciprocating refrigerator compressor
from 73% to 80% efficiency by using positive temperature coefficient resistor an
d married to run capacitor (Schroeder, 1976). Nelson and Middleton (Nelson & Mid
dleton, 1980) were developed an energy efficient compressor for refrigerator and
freezers by introducing four poles electric motor combined with positive temper
ature coefficient resistor and also improve compressor s geometry. Four poles elec
tric motor also implemented by Peruzzi from Italy with the effort to improve EER
for a hermetic reciprocating compressor. The works on improvement of efficiency
of electric motors, compressor s geometry and other compressor parts were continu
ed by other researchers in the following years with the improvement methods almo
st same as previous researchers did (Dreiman, Bunch, Hwang, & Radermacher, 2004;
Kawai, Nishihara, Hamada, & Nakaoka, 1982; Ooi & Ng, 2002)
It has been mentioned before that the refrigerator consists of four main compone
nts: a compressor, a condenser, a capillary tube and an evaporator. Assembled in
sequential of its order, compressor will compressed refrigerant in vapour form
to high pressure and temperature, then this refrigerant is fed into condenser. I
n the condenser, high pressure and temperature refrigerant will be cooled by mea
ns of free convection heat transfer and then fed into capillary tube. Capillary
tube is a metering device which reduces condenser pressure to evaporator pressur
e. In The meantime, the temperature of refrigerant also decreases and it will ch
ange the phase of refrigerant from sub-cooled liquid into mixture. Then the refr
igerant is fed into evaporator. Evaporator is heat exchanger devices to absorb a
vailable heat in refrigerated space and the heat is then carried by refrigerant
into compressor. These processes occurred continuously in all components.
Since the condenser and evaporator is both the heat exchanger device, their perf
ormance is very significant as a performance indicator in any domestic refrigera

tor. Early work to investigate performance of the condenser and evaporator in do

mestic refrigerator was conducted by Ding and Chen (Ding & Chen, 1992). The auth
ors reported that the weight of evaporator influencing the energy consumption of
refrigerator. Lee et al. (K.-S. Lee, Pak, Lee, & Lee, 1996) were conducted expe
rimental study for the effect of frost formation in a flat plate finned tube eva
porator. They were analyzed effect of various factors such as fin spacing, fin a
rrangement, air temperature, humidity and air velocity on the frost growth and t
hermal performance of the evaporator.
Keratas et al. (Karatas, Dirik, & Derbentli, 1996) were conducted a study on dom
estic refrigerator finned tube evaporator coils in order to determine heat trans
fer coefficient and friction factor. These two parameters were correlated in ter
ms of Reynolds number and fin factor and the establish correlation were used for
the calculation of the heat transfer coefficient for the nonuniform flow. Tri-t
ube type evaporator was introduced by Lee et al. (JS Lee, Lee, Ham, Oh, & Cho, 2
000) to be used in domestic refrigerator. This kind of evaporator was designed t
o enhance the defrosting efficiency and basic performance of an indirect cooling
household refrigerator. This evaporator was able to enhanced energy efficiency
by reducing energy consumption about 4% in Korea. This evaporator has been paten
ted under US patent with Application No. 10/368 343 in 2003. However it has been
abandoned by patent US7726025 in 2010. Kim and Jang (Cho, Kim, & Jang, 2005) we
re conducted an experiment of mass and heat transfer coefficient for finned tube
evaporator under frost condition. They were tested a single stage and a two-sta
ge evaporator with a variation of operating parameters and fin geometry. The air
side heat and mass transfer coefficients were calculated from the measured data
and the effects of tube space and fin alignment in the heat transfer performance
were also investigated.
Parallel with the technology development in recent years, and advanced research
approaches, energy efficiency has been improved in many fields for engineering w
ith different methods. Increasing of the rate of heat transfer is a method to i
mprove energy efficiency and in the field for cooling system in the transportati
on industry, hydronic heating and cooling systems in buildings, and industrial p
rocess heating and cooling systems in petrochemical, textile, pulp, and paper, c
hemical, food, and other processing plants. In order to improve the rate of heat
transfer, Choi and Eastman (Eastman, Choi, Li, Thompson, & Lee, 1996). Introduc
ed suspended metallic nanoparticles in conventional heat transfer fluids. The re
sulting nanofluids exhibits high nanoparticles in conventional heat transfer fluid
s. The resulting nanofluids exhibits high thermal conductivities compared to those
of currently used heat transfer fluids, and they represent the best hope for en
hanced thermophysical properties and heat transfer performance can be applied in
many devices for better performance. Nanofluids is a part of nanotechnology whi
ch being used or considered for use in many application targeted to provide clea
ner, more efficient energy supplies and uses. The applications of nanotechnology
were reported by many researches such as Choi and Eastman (Eastman et al., 1996
), Serrano et al. (Serrano, Rus, & Garcia-Martinez, 2009), Saidur et al. (Saidur
, Leong, & Mohammad, 2011) in many application as listed below;
I.
Engine and transmission oil cooling
II.
Refrigeration (domestic and chillers)
III.
Boiler exhaust flue gas recovery
IV.
Heating and cooling of building
V.
Cooling of electronics
VI.
Lubrications
VII.
Biomedical application
VIII. Nanofluids in transformer oil
Saidur et al. (Saidur, Leong, et al., 2011) reported that there is no comprehens
ive literature on the nanoparticles as additives with conventional refrigerants
and oils used in refrigeration system. Previously, Jiang et al. (Jiang, Ding, &
Peng, 2009) were conducted experimental work to test thermal conductivity charac
teristic of the carbon nanotubes (CNT) nanorefrigerants and to build a model for
predicting the thermal conductivities of CNT nanorefrigerants. Bi et al. (S.-s.
Bi, Shi, & Zhang, 2008) were conducted experiment of mineral oil with TiO2 nano

particles mixtures as lubricant in domestic refrigerator. The refrigerant was R134a with the common lubricant was Polyol-ester (POE). The refrigerator performa
nce with the nanoparticles was investigated using energy consumption test facili
ties with 26.1% less energy consumption. The same authors also were conducted ex
periment work for performance of a domestic refrigerator using TiO2-R600a nanore
rigerant as working fluid with 0.1 g/L and 0.5 g/L concentration of TiO2-R600a n
anorefrigerant. The performance of refrigerator shows 9.6% less energy used with
0.5 g/L. TiO2-R600a nanorefrigerant (S. Bi, Guo, Liu, & Wu, 2011). Table 2 show
s summary of previous works from other researcher regarding to application of na
noparticles in refrigeration system.
Table 2: Summary of previous work regarding to application of nanoparticles in r
efriegration system
Authors Nanoparticles Size of nanoparticles Refrigerant type
% of con
centration
Performance
(Park & Jung, 2007)
Carbon nanotubes TiO2 20nm OD and 1m length R123 and R134a 1% by volume
Enhance heat transfer coefficient up to 36.6%
(Trisaksri & Wongwises, 2009)
TiO2
Average 21nm
R141b 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05% by Volume Nucleate pool bo
iling heat transfer detiorated with increasing particle concentration
(Peng, Ding, Jiang, Hu, & Gao, 2009)
CuO
R113
0-0.5% by weight
Maximum enhancement of heat tran
sfer coefficient is 29.7% is obtained.
(Peng et al., 2010)
Diamond 10nm
R113
0-5% by weight The nucleate pool boiling heat transfer
coefficirnt ofR113/oilmixture with nanoparticles is increase by 63.4%
(Kedzierski, 2011)
Al203 10nm
R134a 0.5, 1 and 2% by weight The average heat flux improvemen
t for heat fluxes less than 40kW/m2 was approximately 105%, 49%, and 155% for th
e 0.5%, the 1% and the 2% mass fractions, respectively.
(Sabareesh, Gobinath, Sajith, Das, & Sobhan, 2012)
TiO2
20nm
R12
0.005-0.015 by volume Increase COP of 1.43 instead of
1.22
2.0 Nanofluid.
Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions of nanosized (1-100 nanometers) solid parti
cles in a base liquid. It is proven that nanofluids usually have properties of e
nhanced thermal conductivity if we compare with its base fluids (Pawel Keblinski
, Eastman, & Cahill, 2005). In refrigeration system, the effort to improve the e
fficiency of the system by introduces nanoparticles in refrigerant (nanorefriger
ant) and in lubricant oil (nanolubricant). Nanofluids show great potential to en
hance the thermodynamic and mechanical performance of refrigeraton systems. Addi
ng nanoparticles to the base liquids can altogether increase their transport pro
perties and the efficiency of the system, regardless of the possibility that the
impact on pressure must be deliberately evaluated. In addition, nanolubricants
can enhance their tribological properties (lubricity, against wear properties, h
igh pressure condition) with clear advantages for the compressors. In refrigerat
ion system, we can have either only nanorefrigerant or nanorefrigerant in the sy
stem, or we can have them both in the system. The nanorefrigerant and nanolubric
ant, it both thus help in energy saving, but in different way to another. In the
refrigeration system, the nanorefrigerant act as the heat absorber or cooling a
gent while nanolubricant just lubricate the compressor so they work in a seperat
e system. Nanorefrigerant helps more on improving heat transfer, while nanolubri
cants work more by lubricate the moving piston by having more better tribology c
haracteristic. By adding nanoparticles on both refrigerant and lubricant oil can
improve greatly on energy saving.
As in previous years, a numerous effort has been employed to research in tribulo
gy to reduce friction, enhance lubrication, and reduce wear of interacting surfa
ces that are in relative motion which can be applied in many fields such refrige
ration, compressor amd many more. To those in the maintenance department, one sh

ould understand the important of precision lubrication. It makes sense that good
lubrication is a good investment because machines run better when they are appr
opriately greased up. The topic of adding nanoparticles in lubricants or we can
call it as nanolubricants is one of the most active areas in tribulogy improveme
nt in research today. Among the most significant current discussions in nanotech
nology is cost reduction and energy saving. The term real cost was the correct way
to explain this. Real Cost is measured by the expenses connected with the inabi
lity to have the proper lubrication, in the correct spot, at the ideal time. Sci
entific studies show that 0.4% of gross domestic product could be saved in terms
of energy in western industrialized countries if we improve the tribulogical pe
rformance (Mang & Dresel, 2007). Statistically, the refrigerator is the second-b
iggest client of power (13.7%), directly after air conditioner system (14.1%). (
Dept. of Energy) With most apparatuses you spare vitality by utilizing them less
, however you can't exceptionally well do that with your air conditioner, especi
ally when one sitting in car considering current climate. Current automotives ai
r-cond aren't only somewhat more efficient, they're amazingly more efficiently t
han previous model because great deal of effort was used to improve the design a
nd the performance of these system, but there are still less effort to use the n
ano-particles in them. Nanofluids or nanolubricants have the following attribute
s when contrasted with ordinary normal fluid suspensions. (Saidur, Kazi, Hossain
, Rahman, & Mohammed, 2011)
Higher heat transfer between the particles and liquid because of high su
rface area of the particles.
Better dispersion stability.
Reduces particle clogging.
Reduces pumping force when contrasted with base liquid to acquire compar
able warmth exchange.
Lubricants with nano particles are a basicly new class of liquids which comprise
of a base lubricants with nano-sized particles (1 100 nm) suspended inside them w
hich are metal or metal oxide focussing towards increment conduction and convec
tion coefficients, taking into consideration more heat rejected out of the coola
nt.(Phillbot Keblinski, Phillpot, Choi, & Eastman, 2002). There are still many t
hing have to be investigated before we can fully use nanoparticles in fluid (Paw
el Keblinski, Prasher, & Eapen, 2008). The definitive theory on nanolubricants s
till does not exists based on these reasons (Das, Choi, Yu, & Pradeep, 2007):
The thermal properties is excessively different from solid solid composite
s or standard solid liquid suspensions.
Th thermal transport in nanofluids, other than being shockingly efficien
t contrasted with standard solid liquid suspensions, relies on upon nontraditional
variables, for example, molecule size, shape, and surface treatment.
Th comprehension of the material science behind nanofluids obliges a mul
tidisciplinary approach.
Tribological performance
According to the theory of thermodynamics, coefficients of performance (COP) for
vapor compression refrigeration cycles was affected by the desired cooling outp
ut over the power input by the compressor. Is is known that if we reduce the wor
k required by compressor to run the system, we can reduce the COP of the system.
One of the way was to improve the performance of tribology to achieve that goal
. Previously, the lubricant industry is dealing with numerous work of research a
ctivity in the field of nanotechnologies with the aim to improve the performance
of tribological of lubrications to reduce the friction, wear, and improve lubri
cation(Liu, Li, Lu, & Fan, 2005). In this subchapter, we only focus on the impro
vement of lubrication performance. Friction and wear are important as sources of
energy and material in mechanical equipment. Lubricant is a main concern to in
crease mechanical durability and energy efficiency. Lubricants in refrigeration
system grease up inner parts, remove heat generated during compression, clean th
e framework, go about as a fluid seal and decrease works required by compressor(
Hundy, Trott, & Welch, 2008). The existance of nano particles in lubricants impa
cts the conduct of every part of refrigeration units. It is, then again, general

ly conceded that the condenser is the slightest delicate segment to the presence
of the lubricant, and the writing is therefore rare on that subject, while the
compressor, the evaporator and pipes are the subject of a bigger number of produ
ctions, some of which are examined in the following areas.
3.1 Impacts on components performance
3.1.1 Compressor
A noteworthy impact of decrease in the performance of compressor is the foaming
phenomenon. Foam is formed by mechanical action. The movement of the piston to t
he oil draws air into the sump. This happens despite any design and assembly iss
ues. The foaming gets to be rough with increase rotational rate of the blade and
expanded stream rate of the bloqing vapor (Yanagisawa, Shimizu, & Fukuta, 1991)
. This means that the faster the movement os compressor, the higher the percenta
ge that foam formation occur. Actually, there are less work that focus on this a
rea involving lubricant with nanoparticles. One of the study stated that lubrica
nts that have LTL-type zeolite crystals as nanoparticles slows down the oxidatio
n rate of the oils and also resulted in a lower rate of production of solid poly
meric residues, potentially causing the effect of foam forming, lesser (Majano,
Ng, Lakiss, & Mintova, 2011).
There are also several studies in the literature reporting of increasing perform
ance of compressor that use nanolubricants as its lubricating oil. It is proven
that carbon nano-particles can be used and enhanced the lubrication on the conta
ct surfaces having friction. Carbon nano-oil increase the anti-wear properties a
t the thrust slide-bearing of scroll compressors. This will decrease frictional
loss in the thrust slide-bearing that occupies a large part of total mechanical
loss in scroll compressors (Ahamed, Saidur, & Masjuki, 2011). A review on exergy
analysis of vapour compression system, show the reduction in the energy losses
when nanofluids are used as nanolubricants instead of baselubricants due to bett
er thermal dissipation, lower wearing and improved lubrication properties, thus
resulting the exergy losses in the compressor to be lessen (Ahamed et al., 2011)
. It was stated that the addition of Copper Oxides (CuO) and carbon nano-tubes h
elps to enhance heat transfer.
However, not all show positive result because (Fedele, Colla, Scattolini, Bellom
are, & Bobbo, 2014), the study show no noticeable improvement on performance of
system even when using titanium oxide (TiO2) or single wall carbon nano-horns (S
WCNH) as nanoparticles in lubricant, instead of using comercial oil.
3.1.2 Impacts on Capillaries and pipes tube
The common problem of oil in circuit funnels is connected again to that of oil c
ome back to the compressor. In the event that oil stays in the refrigeration cir
cuit, the system performance is reduced and the compressor durability will be af
fected. In the study carried out by (Azmi, Sharma, Sarma, Mamat, & Najafi, 2014)
, it can be conclude that friction factor increments with both density and absol
ute viscosity of the nano liquid. It can be interpreted that the two nano liqui
ds, SiO2 and TiO2, having comparable estimations of viscosity can have distincti
ve estimations of friction factor. The increase of friction factor when using na
nolubricants will probably have good effect on flow characteristic, thus improve
the oil return to the compressor.
3.2 Tribological improvement
The topic of tribological improvement in enclosures is one of the most active ar
eas in nanotechnologies research today. Author found that nanolubricants adequat
ely decrease sliding frictional losses by a nonstop supply of active lubricant a
dditives and by developing a steady, low friction tribofilm at the sliding inter
face of the workpiece surface (Kalita, Malshe, Jiang, & Shih, 2010). Nanolubrica
nts containing inorganic MoS2 nanoparticles researched by deliberate tribologica
l testing under a simulated machining cooperation between abrasive crystals and
a workpiece in a surface grinding procedure. Later, in the study (Sayuti, Sarhan
, & Salem, 2014) they experimenting SiO2 nanolubricants on apparatus wear and s
urface harshness utilizing fuzzy logic and response analysis to figure out which
prepare parameters are measurably significant. In this experiment, is was found
out that minimun tool wear when using lubricants with 0.5%wt nanoparticle conce

ntration and enhanced surface roughness. In another study, Author examined nanolubricants with vegetable oils as base fluid which are more preferable and studi
es are to be done to assess the performance of vegetable oils when nanoparticles
are added to them (Koshy, Rajendrakumar, & Thottackkad, 2015). The surface geog
raphy and surface roughness investigations done by AFM and FESEM uncover that th
e roughness of the friction surface of the pin is diminished and the surface get
s smoother at the point when nanoparticles at ideal concentration level are incl
uded to the lubricants with suitable surfactants. This was one of the effort mad
e by them to introduce more environmental solution that lave great lubrication p
erformances. Recently, Author gave a comprehensive review on nanolubricant with
boron nitride as nanoparticles (Wan, Jin, Sun, & Ding, 2015). The result show th
at the nanolubricant with a little measure of boron nitride nanoparticles could
display good tribological performance optimal concentration of nanoparticles was
found to be around 0.1wt.%.
Heat transfer enhancement
4.1 Using nanoparticles to improve heat transfer
When the heat transfer improve in certain refrigeration system, there ar
e significant improvement in the performance of the system. In recent study (R.
R. Kumar, Sridhar, & Narasimha, 2013) there are improvement of heat transfer whe
n using Al2O3 as nanoparticles in refrigerants, also the power consumption decr
eases, this is because the improvement of heat transfer reduce the effort that n
eeded to run the working fluid by the compressor, thus the system work more effi
ciently. There have been several studies in the literature reporting on possible
heat transfer improvement when adding nanoparticles in base fluid. In recent ye
ars analyses have shown that nanofluids have a tendency to have generously highe
r warm conductivity than the base liquids (Pawel Keblinski et al., 2005). Among
the significant advantages of nanofluids are higher surface area, higher stabili
ty of the colloidal suspension, lower pumping force needed to accomplish the ide
ntical heat transfer, reduced particle clogging contrasted with ordinary colloid
s, flexible control of the thermodynamics properties and transport properties by
changing the particles concentration,size, and shape resulting in higher heat t
ransfer capability (Saidur, Kazi, et al., 2011).
4.1.1 Thermal conductivity enhancement
Thre is countless applications that can benefit from a superior comprehe
nsion of the thermal conductivity improvement of nanofluids, including in refrig
eration system. The first experiment to prove enhancement of thermal fluid of na
nofluid was (Chol, 1995) where the author use alumina as nanoparticles. Al2Cu an
d Ag2Al nanoparticles was later use in the experiment, and it show some improvem
ent of 50% to 150% of its thermal conductivity when dispersing the nanoparticles
in water and ethylene glycol as base fluid (Chopkar, Kumar, Bhandari, Das, & Ma
nna, 2007). In another study, Results from the study demonstrate the thermal co
nductivity increase with an increment in particle volume fraction and with a sma
ller in particle size. Moreover, the relative increase in thermal conductivity w
as observed to be more vital at higher temperatures (Mintsa, Roy, Nguyen, & Douc
et, 2009).
However in several cases of study (Buongiorno et al., 2009; Putnam, Cahi
ll, Braun, Ge, & Shimmin, 2006; Shalkevich et al., 2009; Turanov & Tolmachev, 20
09); reported that there are little increase or no improvement in thermal conduc
tivities of nanofluids. However that is case dependent, because maybe the nanopa
rticles have to be in the most stable configurration before it can give consider
able improvement in thermal conductivity.
4.1.2 Viscosity
Despite the fact that the research on heat convection in nanofluids is restricte
d contrasted with that in thermal conductivity, the outcomes and methodologies i
n the field are very various and worth mentioning (Das et al., 2007). Tavman et
al. (2010) researched TiO2, SiO2, and Al2O3 nanoparticles in water furthermore r
eported an increase in nanofluid viscosity with an increment in the nanoparticle
concentration; they likewise demonstrated that established oempirical theories,
for example, the Einstein model (Einstein, 1906) were not able to anticipate th
e right viscosity increment in nanofluids. Later in another study, the viscosity

showed a relationship between temperature of 10 C and 80 C with the nanoparticle

concentration. For base fluid with CuO volume fraction of 0.025, they reported
an increment in viscosity of roughly 300%, but it decreases significantly with t
he rise of temperature (Kole & Dey, 2011). Temperature variation of the nanoflui
d viscosity obtain in the study seem consisten with the modified Andrade equatio
n, reported by Chen et al.
4.1.3 Heat Convection
In spite of the fact that an improved thermal conductivity in nanofluids is an b
etter element for application in heat transfer devices, it is not always suffic
ient condition. Actually, nanofluids also should be investigated for execution u
nder convective modes. In this section, we will specificly discuss improvement o
f heat convection in nanofluids. The first known experiment of heat convection w
as by (Pak & Cho, 1998). On the other hand, the results showed that convective h
eat transfer coefficient of the dispersed fluids with submicron metallic oxide p
articles ?Al?_(2 ) O_3 at a volume concentration of 3% was 12% littler than th
at of base when analyzed under the state of consistent average velocity. Consequ
ently, better choice of particles having higher thermal conductivity and bigger
size is recommended so as to use dispersed liquids as a working medium to improv
e heat transfer execution. However in Xuan and Li (2003) study show that demonst
rated an increment of as much as 40 % in the heat transfer coefficient of the na
nofluid, at the same steady average speed. The principle diffrence between their
experiment was in the decision of nanoparticles, which on account of Xuan and L
i were 100nm copper particles. The difference of their result was probably becaus
e the heat transfer coefficient must depend on the molecule volume fraction as w
ell as on the molecule size and material. Again in (2007), Pak and Cho and other
s reseached instead of using Nusselt numbers, deal with dimensional heat transfe
r coeffficient that includes the thermal conductivity of the fluid. In (2005), Y
ang et al. discover that heat transfer coefficient was depend on nanoparticle co
ncentration, material, temperature, and type base fluid. Daungthongsuk et al. an
d Kakac et al. critically review the heat convection in (Daungthongsuk & Wongwis
es, 2007; Kakac & Pramuanjaroenkij, 2009), there are focussing on the forced con
vective heat transfer in numerical and experimental of nanofluids. Although all
above work was on forced heat convection, there are also research of natural con
vection of nanofluids. The first research about natural convection was done in 2
003 (Putra, Roetzel, & Das, 2003). The 131.2nm ?Al?_(2 ) O_3 nanoparticles and t
he other with 87.3nm CuO particles was tested in water based fluid, they observed
that as the nanoparticle volume fraction increases, the natural convective heat
transfer in nanoflids is lower than pure water, and this situation was recorder
higher in the CuO nanofluid than for ?Al?_(2 ) O_3 water nanofluid. Wen and Din
g (2005) study TiO2 water based nanofluid where they found out that the decreasing
effect of natural convection of nanofluids affected by the gradients of concent
ration of the nanoparticle, to the particle surface and particle particle communicat
ion, and to the modification of the properties of the dispersion. In 2011, an ex
periment was carried out by analyzing their heat transfer performance for single
phase natural convection in bottomheated enclosures, assuming that nanofluids beh
ave like single phase fluids (Corcione, 2011). The results also show that the he
at transfer improvement is maximum at an ideal molecule concentration and the ma
ximum enhancement of heat transfer increases as the temperature increases.
5.0
Nanofluids performance enhancement in heat exchanger.
5.1 Introduction
In refrigeration system, the system operates by taking advantages of the fact th
at high compressed fluids at a certain temperature will tend to get colder when
they are allowed to expand. The transfer of heat between two or more fluids at d
ifferent temperatures was done by heat exchanger equipment (Sundn & Wu, 2015). To
reject heat and absorbs heat, the system uses two heat exchanger in order achie
ve ideal vapor-compression refrigeration cycle. The optimization of performance
of nanofluids in heat exchanger will make the system run more efficient and more
energy will the be saved. Early prediction predicticted that nanofluids have po
tential to enhance heat transfer coeffient and critical heat flux in pool boilin
g and

flow boiling.
5.1 Performance of nanofluids in tubes and Heat exchangers
An extensive review have been reviewed about the characteristic of heat transfer
in straight tubes, unfortunately there is still debates about anomalous heat tr
ansfer enhancement has been achieved (Dalkilic et al., 2012; Hussein, Sharma, Ba
kar, & Kadirgama, 2014). Statistically that the majority of the past studies dem
onstrated low heat transfer improvement; 11% of the specimen indicated decreasin
g of the heat transfer coefficient and 3% showed no enhancement by any means (Se
rgis & Hardalupas, 2011). However, in another study, an arrangement of exact so
lutions have been acquired for hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed la
minar nanofluid flows in channels and tubes,which is subjected to consistent hea
t flux. From the arrangements, it has been inferred that the anomalous heat tran
sfer rate, surpassing the rate anticipated from the increment in thermal conduct
ivity, is possibly in such cases as titania water nanofluids in a channel, alumina w
ater nanofluids in a tube furthermore titania water nanofluids in a tube (C. Yang,
Li, Sano, Mochizuki, & Nakayama, 2013).
In complex geometries such heat exchangers, helically coiled tubes, microchannel
s, and enhanced tubes, the topic on the heat transfer characteristic is still fe
w of them. In 2012, review the important distributed articles on the improvement
of the convection heat transfer in heat exchangers utilizing nanofluids on two
points, focuses on use of nanofluids in different sorts of heat exchangers (Humi
nic & Huminic, 2012). In the year of 2013, an experiment was carried out to find
the hydraulic and thermal performance of different nanofluids in a plate heat e
xchanger. The CeO2/water nanofluid seems to enhances the heat transfer performan
ce of plate heat exchanger when an ideal molecule concentrations was achieved (T
iwari, Ghosh, & Sarkar, 2013). However in another study, demonstrated that ther
e is no signifiant Nusselt number increase for the nanofluid with 2.0% molecule
volume fraction taking into account the same Reynolds number, although for the n
anofluid with 4.65% volume fraction, a reduction in the Nusselt number was repor
ted, where the CuO/water nanoflids in a chevron-sort modern plate heat exchanger
was tested (Taws, Nguyen, Galanis, & Gherasim, 2012). There are also reports th
at nanofluids enhance the performance of evaporators, one of the heat exchanger
in refrigeration system. From the recent experiment, researchers reported that t
he boiling heat transfer coefficient and the enhancement of critical heat flux b
y nanofluids resulting from a thin porous nanoparticle deposition layer on the e
vaporator surface, which serves to enhance the wettability and capillarity of th
e boiling surface (Kim, 2009; Wen, Corr, Hu, & Lin, 2011; White, Shih, & Pipe, 2
011).
6.0 Enhancement in refrigeration system performance.
6.1 Introduction
The coefficient of performance or COP of cooling in refrigeration system, is the
ratio of the heat remove from the cold reservoir to input work. The best perfor
mance for refrigeration system is describes as process that uses the lowest amou
nt of inputs to create the greatest amount of outputs. The higher the COP of a c
ertain system, the higher energy can be saved, and the more efficiently the syst
em runs.
6.2 Energy performance improvement of refrigeration system using nanolubricant
There are lot of experiment to test the effectiveness of the nanofluid to achiev
e better performance in refrigeration system by dispersing nanoparticles into th
e refrigerant, lubricant or both of it. According to an investigation by (Wang,
Wu, & Wu, 2010) where they use NiFe2O4 nanoparticles into naphthene based oil B
32, and using R134a, R407C, R410a and R425a as refrigerant, the performance of
residential air conditioners, energy efficiency ratio, EER increased 6% by repla
cing the Polyol-Easter oil VG 32 lubricant with the nanolubricant. In another st
udy using nanolubricant, where the study explores the impact of dispersing a low
concentration of TiO2 nanoparticles in the mineral oil based lubricant, on its
viscosity and lubrication qualities, and in addition on the performance of refri
geration system utilizing R12 (Dichlorodifluoromethane) as the working liquid (S
abareesh et al., 2012). An improvement in the COP of the refrigeration system ha
s been results from an ideal volume fraction , with low concentration of nanopar

ticles suspended in the mineral oil, and the compressor work reduced by about 11
%, which ultimately resulted in the COP improvement of about 17%. In (2015), Lou
et al. investigates the effectiveness of nanolubricant towards enhancing perfor
mances in domestic refrigerator. The study also show power utilization of the do
mestic refrigerator reduce about 4.55% when utilizing graphite nanolubricant wit
h a mass division of 0.1%.
6.3 Energy performance improvement of refrigeration system using nanorefrigerant
As already mentioned above, by dispersing nanoparticles int greatly enhance heat
transfer, and achieve better system stability and this helps in energy saving.
To prove that, in (2007) Shengshan & Lin has conducted experiment to investigate
s the refrigeration performance with R134a/TiO2 nano-refrigerants with different
concentration of TiO2 particles with no change of the first refrigeration syste
m.The test results demonstrate that the R134a/TiO2 nano-refrigerant works typica
lly and securely in the cooler with lower power utilization and quicker refriger
ation speed with an ideal TiO2 nano-particle concentration of 10 mg/L which decr
eases the energy used by 7.43%. The research study by Bi, Shengshan, et al. also
being carried out, TiO2-R600a nano-refrigerants were utilized to test refrigera
tor performance by using energy consumption test and freeze capacity test (S. Bi
et al., 2011). The outcomes demonstrate that TiO2-R600a nano-refrigerants work
ordinarily and securely in the fridge. The fridge execution was superior than or
iginal R600a system, with 9.6% less energy utilized with 0.5 g/L TiO2-R600a nano
-refrigerant. Later, Mahbubul, I. M., et al. investigates the relation between t
hermal performance and the increase of COP performance for certain refrigeration
system (Mahbubul, Saadah, Saidur, Khairul, & Kamyar, 2015). The outcomes demons
trate that thermal conductivity, dynamic viscosity, and density of Al2O3/R-134a
nanorefrigerant increase around 28.58%, 13.68%, and 11%, individually contrasted
with the base refrigerant (R-134a) for the same temperature. Additionally, Al2O
3/R-134a nanorefrigerant demonstrates the maximun COP of 15%, 3.2%, and 2.6% for
thermal conductivity, density, and specific heat, individually contrasted with
R-134a base refrigerant. The replacement of R134a with R152a in this way gives a
green and clean environment, with zero ozone depleting potential (ODP) and less
GWP (D. S. Kumar & Elansezhian, 2014). Kumar et al. The performance of refriger
ation was significantly enhanced with 21% less energy utilization when 0.5%v ZnO
-R152a refrigerant. Both the suction pressure and discharge pressure were brough
t down by 10.5% when nanorefrigerant was utilized. The evaporator temperature wa
s lessened by 6% with the utilization of nanorefrigerant.
7.0 Pressure drop characteristic of nanorefrigerant
The characteristic of refrigerant suspension may change when nanoparticles dispe
rsed in it, this including the pressure drop characteristic. Liquid solid phase
pressure drop attributes and liquid solid and vapor phase (phase change) pressur
e drop qualities of nanofluids are researched by many scientists. Before selecti
ng any refrigerant, the effect of pressure need to be study carefully to ensure
the nanorefrigerant stability for a longer period of time. Li and Kleinstreuer s
tudy the pressure drop of solid and liquid phase of fluid charateristic by simul
ation (Li & Kleinstreuer, 2008). According to them, they are two properties that
affect the pressure drop which is density and viscosity. The addition of nanopa
rticles into base working fluid has made the nanofluid became higher density and
higher viscosity, so this will increase the chances of pressure drop happen. Fu
rther research have been done to confirm this, viscosity of nanofluids is higher
than basefluid, when Al2O3 nanofluids and ethylene glycol based ZnO nanofluids
were tested (D. S. Kumar & Elansezhian, 2014; Yu, France, Choi, & Routbort, 2007
). Namburu, Praveen K., et al in their numerical study also agree that above two
causes of pressure drop properties proportional with nanoparticles volume fract
ion (Namburu, Das, Tanguturi, & Vajjha, 2009). In another study, reported that t
he same Reynolds number, single-phase pressure drop increase when nanoparticle c
oncentration increases compared to pure fluids (Jaeseon Lee & Mudawar, 2007). La
ter in (2011) they found out that pressure drop increases significantly for
=1 volume % concentrations of nanoparticles. Later,based on Mahbubul et al
. analysis it was found that both heat transfer and pressure drop porperties inc
rease with the increase of nanoparticle volume concentration. So, the improvemen

t performance of a refrigeration system must take account the correct optimum (M

ahbubul, Saidur, & Amalina, 2013). concentration of nanoparticles of nanorefrige
ration to obtain good pressure drop and heat transfer characteristic.