Lubrication and lubricant development considerations for low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants.

As the industry transitions to lower GWP refrigerants, and in some cases while simultaneously changing product designs and/or their application space, opportunities exist to re-evaluate whether conventional processes still represent best practice for understanding fluid and equipment interactions, and whether conventional lubricants are optimized to meet these new challenges. In this paper, we will take a fresh look at the interactions of new refrigerant and lubricant chemistries with equipment and their operating maps, and propose challenges to the status quo. We will also discuss considerations and case studies to optimize the performance, reliability, and development speed of HVACR equipment applied with low GWP refrigerants.