Thermodynamic and energy efficiency analysis of a domestic refrigerator using al₂o₃ nano-refrigerant

Refrigeration systems have experienced massive technological changes in the past 50 years. Nanotechnology can lead to a promising technological leap in the refrigeration industry. Nanorefrigerant still remains unknown because of the complexity of the phase change process of the mixture including refrigerant, lubricant, and nanoparticle. In this study, the stability of Al₂O₃ nanofluid and the performance of a nano-refrigerant-based domestic refrigerator have been experimentally investigated, with the focus on the thermodynamic and energy approaches. It was found that by increasing the nanoparticle concentration, the stability of nano-lubricant was decreased and evaporator temperature gradient was increased. The average of the temperature gradient increment in the evaporator was 20.2% in case of using 0.1%-Al₂O₃ . The results showed that the energy consumption of the refrigerator reduced around 2.69% when 0.1%-Al₂O₃ nanoparticle was added to the system.