Properties of alternative engineering fluids based on hydrofluoroethers and their blends

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Andreas Jäger
• Subject Area: Technical Thermodynamics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531179941

Many industrial applications are based on environmentally unsuitable fluids such as (hydro-)fluorochlorocarbons, which have to be replaced. As a consequence, alternatives that could be used as heat transfer liquids, refrigerants, or solvents are intensively searched. The family of hydrofluoroethers (HFEs, commercial name Novecs) represents promising fluids with technically favorable properties and low environmental impact. For their practical use, accurate and reliable thermophysical properties need to be known. The project aims at the generation of reference property data for HFE fluids and their mixtures using advanced experimental methods, molecular modeling, and equations of state. Various properties will be determined experimentally, i.e., pressure–density–temperature relationships, heat capacities, vapor-liquid equilibria, viscosities, and surface tensions. The experimental and modeled data from the project will be analyzed in order to develop cubic, SAFT, LKP, and multiparameter equations of state. Mixture models will be developed for HFE mixtures, e.g., with water and CO2. In summary, the project will provide accurate description of the thermophysical properties of new technically promising fluids with low environmental impact of Novec type through modern equations of state based on molecular models and new experimental data obtained using advanced experimental methods.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Czech Republic
• Cooperation Partners: Vojtech Stejfa, Ph.D.; Václav Vins, Ph.D.