Use of hydrates for cold storage and distribution in refrigeration and air-conditioning applications

Cold production is a basic need of development in many fields, but it accounts for 15% of the electricity consumed in industrialized countries and 8% of greenhouse gas emissions, when including the impact of primary refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP). This chapter provides a review of hydrate systems studied for cool storage and distribution. It presents the criteria for the use of hydrates in refrigeration and related literature. The criteria include thermodynamic criterion, flow criterion, thermal criterion, kinetic criterion and energy criterion. The chapter describes hydrate applications in refrigeration and air conditioning, including slurry generators and examples of hydrate-based refrigeration systems. Several compounds have been considered in the literature to form hydrates applied to refrigeration, including refrigerant gases, hydrocarbons (HCs) CO ₂ or quaternary salts. The chapter also presents a short review of energy studies related to hydrates in cooling applications.