Refrigerant Replacement for the University of Arizona's Central Cooling System

The University of Arizona is nationally recognized for its central cooling system, but the three cooling sites on campus use 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, or HFC-134a, a known greenhouse gas that is likely to be banned in the future. The goal of this project is to find a refrigerant that could replace HFC-134a and determine what changes would need to be made to existing cooling sites to accommodate its use. A mathematical model of the entire refrigeration cycle was created to experiment with different refrigerants and determine the best replacement. Another objective of the project was to determine how choice of power source affects greenhouse gas emissions from the refrigeration process.