Traditional classification shows several theoretical and practical deficiencies. One of the most important is the fact that no perfectly isentropic fluid exists. Isentropic fluids have two extrema (ds/dT=0) on the saturation vapour curve. Practically, there are some fluids which are very close to this behaviour or at least in a certain temperature range, for example trichlorofluoromethane (CClF). Another problem is the extent of how dry or isentropic the fluid behaves, which has significant practical importance when designing for example an Organic Rankine Cycle layout and choosing proper expander.
A new kind of classification was proposed by G. Györke et al. to resolve the problems and deficiencies of the traditional three-class classification system. The new classification is also based on the shape of the saturation vapour curve of the fluid in temperature-entropy diagram similarly to the traditional one. The classification uses a characteristic-point based method to differentiate the fluids. The method defines three primary and two secondary characteristic points. The relative location of these points on the temperature-entropy saturation curve defines the categories. Every pure fluid has primary characteristic points A, C and Z:
* Primary point A and Z are the lowest temperature points on the saturation liquid and saturation vapour curve respectively. This temperature belongs to the melting point, which practically equals the triple point of the fluid. The choice of A and Z refers to the first and last point of the saturation curve visually.
* Primary point C refers to the critical point, which is an already well-defined thermodynamic property of the fluids.
The two secondary characteristic points, namely M and N are defined as local entropy extrema on the saturation vapour curve, more accurately, at those points, where with the decrease of the saturation temperature entropy stays constant: ds/dT=0. We can easily realise that considering traditional classification, wet-type fluids have only primary (A, C and Z), dry-type fluids have primary points and exactly one secondary point (M) and redefined isentropic-type fluids have both primary and secondary points (M and N) as well. See figure for better understanding.
The ascending order of entropy values of the characteristic points gives a useful tool to define categories. The mathematically possible number of orderings are 3! (if there are no secondary points), 4! (if only secondary point M exists) and 5! (if both secondary points exist), which makes it 150. There are some physical constraints including the existence of the secondary points decrease the number of possible categories to 8. The categories are to be named after the ascending order of the entropy of their characteristic points. Namely the possible 8 categories are ACZ, ACZM, AZCM, ANZCM, ANCZM, ANCMZ, ACNZM and ACNMZ. The categories (also called sequences) can be fitted into the traditional three-class classification, which makes the two classification system compatible. No working fluids have been found, which could be fitted into ACZM or ACNZM categories. Theoretical studies  confirmed that these two categories may not even exist. Based on the database of NIST, the proved 6 sequences of the novel classification and their relation to the traditional one can be seen in the figure.