Seniors simulate plant for new automotive A/C refrigerant
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For the last 20 years or so, the refrigerant R134a has remained the consistent choice for the automotive air conditioning system industry due to its excellent cooling capabilities, compatibility with existing systems, and an ease of maintenance.
But because it contributes to ozone depletion and climate change, the industry is phasing it out.
Vehicle models manufactured in 2025 or later are required instead to use R1234yf, a synthetic next-generation refrigerant equivalent to R134a. R1234yf is an eco-friendlier alternative to R134a, since it has little to no potential to contribute to global warming.
To better understand the process of creating this new refrigerant, seniors in the UIC Department of Chemical Engineering used Aspen a process simulation and optimization software for chemical, energy, and engineering industries, to simulate building a facility to produce R1234yf.
The team—which includes Ahmed Alhassani, Kyle Hankosky, Kendall Johnson, Lindsey Meisch, and Khoa Nguyen—used limited information currently available on the refrigerant, due to existing patents by Honeywell and Dupont.
“We’ve used information from the current patents, but there’s no university labs or other research facilities looking into this,” Hankosky said. “It’s all pretty much proprietary.”
Still the advantages of the new coolant were clear.
“The old one (R134a) took about 12 years to breakdown and damages the ozone layer, where R1234yf has a lifetime in open atmosphere of about like 12 days and it breaks down,” Hankosky said.
“In senior design, you’re given 90% of the information, you’re responsible for the last 5%, but we had to sit down with basically a spec sheet and figure it out from there,” Nguyen said. “That doesn’t tell you the whole story; how it all fits together and how you finally end up with your final thing.”
Johnson added that this is also all the work that is being done within companies, so this is also giving us relevant industry experience.
The team will present their design at the annual College of Engineering Senior Design Expo will be Friday, April 24, from 1 pm to 4 pm at the Credit 1 Union Arena.