Research of anti-frosting technology in refrigeration and air conditioning fields: A review

Frost formation is inevitable in refrigeration and air conditioning fields. Frosting heavily impacts on the operating efficiency of equipments, and leads to considerable energy consumption for defrosting. This study reviewed anti-frosting techniques in refrigeration and air conditioning fields, including air dehumidification by solid/liquid desiccant, ultrasonic vibration, external electric/magnetic field, surface treatment, etc. Although air dehumidification is an effective method to delay frost formation, the problem of desiccant regeneration prevents this method from practical application. The methods of ultrasonic vibration and external electric/magnetic field are not suitable for large or medium-sized fin-tube evaporator, which result in additional investment and energy input. Besides, the anti-frosting effect of electric/magnetic field is not obvious and needs to be verified by more experiments. However, surface treatment has advantages of high efficient, low cost, environmental protection and practicability. In particular, the superhydrophobic surface shows excellent performance in frosting prevention and defrosting improvement. This is of great significance for energy saving in refrigeration and air conditioning fields. If the strength problem can be further improved by simple preparation methods, it will be a promising anti-frosting technique to deal with the phenomenon of frost formation in refrigeration and air conditioning fields.