Thermal System Integration for Fuel Economy

Europe makes a exemplarily effort to reduce the emissions of Greenhouse gases. In this framework a specific action has been done to reduce the environmental impact of Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) systems proposing the ban of fluids having a GWP (Global W arming Potential) lower than 50 (i.e. R-134a and R-152a) and a series of complementary measures as the measurement of the MAC fuel consumption. This represents a challenge and an opportunity for OEMs and Mobile A/C Suppliers. Carbon Dioxide (CO2; named R- 744 when used as a refrigerant) is the most promising working fluid to replace HFC-134a. The major criticism related to R-744, besides safety and reliability issues, are the additional system component costs that has been estimated up to 100 Euro for me dium-high class vehicles. This value is uncertain for small cars and varies from 70 up to 150 Euro, if the reference system is simple, without any electronics. This could be very critical considering that the lower priced vehicles constitute up the 70% of the present EU car market, and with the EU enlargement this number is expected to rise up to the 80%. A low cost R?744 Mobile Air Conditioning could support he present effort of the European Parliament reducing the resistance to the approval of the HFC ban, allowing a rapid diffusion of the new system with the related environmental benefit and making the EU industries more competitive. Risk, Results and Exploitation: The consortium composition - 2 major OEMs, 4 leader suppliers and three of the most a dvanced research centres in the domain of mobile air conditioning - will make the risk acceptable and very effective the results exploitation in the automotive domain in short-medium term. Moreover the Project gathers the most experienced and skilled Euro pean scientists and engineers in this specific field, so high level scientific and technical know how are expected to be produced as well as scientific advances in the dynamic system modelling.