Comparative Study of the Performance of R290 and R134a Dual-Side Indirect Heat Pump Systems

Energy saving and emission reduction is an important part of the development of electric vehicle technology. Thermal management system affects vehicle energy consumption and carbon emissions, and it is necessary to develop the next generation of thermal management systems to replace R134a with high-performance and low GWP refrigerant. In this paper, a dual-side indirect heat pump system architecture was designed to be compatible with R290 and R134a refrigerants. According to the results of the system bench test, the cooling and heating performance of the R290 system was better than that of the R134a system, and the charge amount of R290 was no more than 150g, which was safe for vehicle application. Therefore, the R290 dual-side indirect heat pump system can be used as a feasible solution for the next-generation thermal management system.