Abstract:In order to solve the problem of high cost and difficult welding of metal materials, as well as avoid the ozone depletion and global warming by Freon refrigerant, a cold storage device made of PERT plastic was produced, with a low cost and an easy assembly. In this study, a polyethylene of high temperature tolerant tube instead of the copper one was used, complied with hydrocarbon refrigerant HCR22 as heat pipe circulating working fluid. The results showed that the best filling ratio of PE-RT plastic heat pipe group was 33%, which was the same as copper heat pipe group, with the same diameter, the structure size, and in best filling time, the optimal heat transfer area ratio of PE-RT plastic heat pipe group was also 2.8∶1. When the heat pipe module ran for 70 h, the water temperature was reduced by 13.52 and 15.30 ℃ respectively by using the PE-RT plastic heat pipe group and copper heat pipe group, and the cold storage capacity of PE-RT plastic heat pipe group for copper heat pipe group was 88.37%. This study supported the application of the PE-RT plastic heat pipe and provided the potential prospect of the real green environmental protection on refrigeration.