Among natural refrigerants, propane (R290) is one of the most interesting solution to guarantee energetic performance with a low direct environmental impact. Safety concerns related to its flammability are limiting its introduction in some fields of refrigeration, therefore the research is focused on new solutions to reduce refrigerant charge. In this work, two design options for a professional freezer working with R290 are considered: the first one with standard volumes heat exchangers available on the market and the second one with reduced volumes heat exchangers. After the optimization of the performances with respect to the refrigerant charge and the regenerative capillary tube length, a remarkable increase of the performance with respect to the baseline version, working with R404A, was observed, while containing the refrigerant charge amount in the limits allowed by actual standards. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.