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

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 TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and SiO 2 at 0.4g/L concentrations are used as nanolubricants in 50g isobutane (R600a) refrigerants. Power consumption was investigated alongside the COP. TiO 2 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, SiO 2 and Al 2 O 3- 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.