A Critical Review of Thermodynamic Performance, Exergy Efficiency, Environmental Sustainability and refrigerant replacement Strategies in Vapour Compression Refrigeration Systems

The approach from R134a to low GWP refrigerants is essential for improving the environmental sustainability of vapour compression refrigeration systems. This review shows that alternatives such as R600a, R152a, R290, R1234yf and can provide competitive or improved thermodynamic performance compared with R134a under suitable operating conditions. R600a and R152a are particularly promising for high efficiency refrigerants, while R290 offers excellent thermodynamic performance with very low GWP. Exergy analysis provides additional insight into component wise irreversibility’s and helps identify major sources of performance degradation. The overall suitability of a refrigerant depends not only on COP and cooling capacity but also on GWP, TEWI/LCCP, flammability, safety, compatibility and modification feasibility. Performance-enhancement techniques such as charge optimization, internal heat exchangers, thermodynamic subcooling and advanced optimization methods can further improve system performance. However, variations in system configuration, refrigerant charge, operating conditions and experimental methods make direct comparison among published studies difficult. Future research should therefore integrate energy, exergy, environmental, safety and economic assessments through multi-objective optimization and experimental validation. Overall, the systematic replacement of R134a with suitable low GWP refrigerants can support the development of efficient, environmentally sustainable and reliable next-generation refrigeration systems.

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