Identifying environmentally friendly refrigerants and understanding their two-phase heat transfer behavior has garnered significant attention, especially with the adoption of highly efficient plate heat exchangers (PHXs). In this study, R290 and two R290-based mixtures—HCM-01 (65% R290 and 35% R1270 by mass) and HYM-01 (35% R290 and 65% R13I1 by mass)—were evaluated as alternatives to R1234yf. Their comparative condensation behavior was analyzed in offset strip PHXs. During the experiments, vapor quality (ranging from 0.2 to 0.9) and mass flux (40–50 kg/m²·s) were varied, while saturation temperature and heat flux were held constant at 45 °C and 6 kW/m², respectively. Initially, condensation mechanisms and flow pattern mapping were conducted using established correlations, revealing forced convective condensation dominance for all refrigerants. However, the transition from bubbly to film flow occurred earlier for R1234yf and HYM-01 (at vapor quality > 0.3–0.4), whereas it was delayed for R290 and HCM-01. Moreover, the peak heat transfer coefficients of R290 and HCM-01 were 25.71–96.73% and 32.03–137.05% higher than that of R1234yf, respectively, while HYM-01 exhibited values 1.81–24.91% lower. On the other hand, R1234yf exhibited significantly lower frictional pressure drops—56.31% and 46.26% lower than R290 and HCM-01, respectively—at higher vapor quality regions. Performance indicators, namely condenser effectiveness and energy performance index (EPI), showed that R1234yf provided superior energy performance, while HCM-01 demonstrated the highest effectiveness. According to the exergy analysis, average exergy destruction in the condenser of R290, HCM-01, and HYM-01 were 1.91%, 1.05%, and 11.02% lower than R1234yf respectively at higher mass fluxes. Finally, a multi-criteria decision-making method was employed to identify the best alternative. Results indicated that assigning the highest weight to the heat transfer coefficient led to the maximum condensation performance index of 0.8497, with HCM-01 emerging as the optimal choice.
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