Modeling, Optimization, and Process Challenges in Refrigeration and HVAC Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumping, and thermal management technologies are essential to modern society and represent a significant share of global energy consumption. Their importance extends beyond thermal comfort, supporting critical activities such as food preservation, pharmaceutical storage, biomedical processes, industrial operations, commercial facilities, and rapidly growing sectors such as data centers.

Efficient use of energy in HVACR systems is increasingly important as global demand for cooling continues to rise. Reliable refrigeration and temperature-control technologies are essential to maintaining the cold chain and preserving food safety, nutritional value, organoleptic properties, appearance, and overall product quality. Similar requirements apply to pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biological materials, and medical processes, where thermal conditions may be critical to product integrity and safety.

At the same time, HVACR technologies face major sustainability challenges. Improving system efficiency, recovering waste heat, developing high-performance heat pumps, enhancing heat-transfer processes, and optimizing thermal systems can significantly reduce energy demand and associated environmental impacts. Computational fluid dynamics, advanced modeling, experimental analysis, and control strategies are increasingly valuable tools for improving the design and operation of these systems.

Environmental considerations related to refrigerants are also critical. Refrigerant emissions may contribute directly to global warming, while energy consumption produces an additional indirect environmental impact. The transition toward low-global-warming-potential refrigerants and natural refrigerants, including CO₂, therefore creates important opportunities for research and technological development.

This Special Issue on “Modeling, Optimization, and Process Challenges in Refrigeration and HVAC Systems” aims to bring together original scientific and technological contributions focused on improving the efficiency, sustainability, reliability, and environmental performance of refrigeration, cooling, heating, and thermal management systems.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Refrigeration and advanced refrigeration cycles;
• HVAC, thermal comfort, and the built environment;
• Energy efficiency and sustainable thermal systems;
• Cooling technologies for industrial applications and data centers;
• Computational fluid dynamics and numerical modeling of thermal systems;
• Refrigerants, low-GWP alternatives, and CO₂ refrigeration systems;
• Phase-change heat transfer, boiling, condensation, and two-phase flow;
• Heat pumps, heat recovery, and waste heat utilization;
• Cold-chain technologies for food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications;
• Modeling, optimization, control, and experimental evaluation of HVACR systems.

We welcome original research articles, numerical and experimental studies, innovative methodologies, and high-quality case studies that contribute to the advancement of refrigeration, HVACR, and sustainable thermal-energy technologies.

We sincerely hope you will consider contributing your research to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Simon Martinez Martinez
Prof. Dr. Juan Manuel Belman-Flores
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• energy efficiency
• cooling systems
• computational fluid dynamics
• refrigeration
• HVAC
• energy consumption
• refrigerants
• low-GWP refrigerants
• heat pumps