News

ASHRAE and UNEP announce lower GWP award selections

ASHRAE and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have announced the project selections for the 2023 ASHRAE-UNEP OzonAction Lower-GWP Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Innovation Awards. The annual international award program promotes innovative design, research, and practice by recognizing people who have developed or implemented innovative technological concepts applied in developing countries to promote lower global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants through refrigeration and air-conditioning applications. Read more

Besa: refrigerant driving licence will save many lives

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has welcomed the long-awaited launch of the United Nations Refrigerant Driving Licence (RDL) scheme to help improve worldwide safety standards in the air conditioning and refrigeration industries. Read more

Copeland, Hillphoenix and AAA Refrigeration demonstrate the power of collaboration in advancing CO₂ adoption

Copeland, Hillphoenix and AAA Refrigeration highlighted the necessity of a collaborative approach – including robust training programs, industry partnerships and continued research – to facilitate the adoption of CO₂ (R744) systems in the refrigeration industry in a presentation at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) America conference. Read more

Evapco installs its first low-charge ammonia split systems in Nevada cold storage facility

U.S.-based OEM Evapco has installed its first low-charge ammonia (R717) split refrigeration systems at a cold storage facility in Reno, Nevada. The project was completed in partnership with specialist contractor Ti Cold, which views the technology as “revolutionary” for the industry. Read more

Japan extends its natural refrigerant subsidy project to fiscal year 2027, with ¥7 billion for fiscal 2023

The Japanese Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has declared it will continue its natural refrigeration equipment installation subsidy project through fiscal year 2027, with ¥7 billion (US$48.7 million) allocated for fiscal year 2023, which runs from June 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. Read more

Engineers develop optimised propane heat pump

Engineers in Germany have developed a functional brine heat pump using a fully hermetic compressor with a heating capacity of 11.4kW using only 146g of propane. Read more

ATMOsphere fact sheet shows growing GWP and PFAS status of F-gases

ATMOsphere, publisher of R744.com, has released a new fact sheet showing that the GWP of a number of commonly used f-gas refrigerants increased between the 4th Assessment Report (AR4) published in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 6th Assessment Report (AR6) published by the IPCC in 2021. Read more

‘Significant work’ required on diversity in cooling – INWIC president

Industry podcast hears that women make up around a fifth of the global cooling sector workforce, with the figure being much lower in technical fields. Read more

EIA urges private cooling sector to make meaningful commitments to sustainable cooling

“In this pivotal decade for climate action, the private sector must go beyond words and meaningfully commit to unlocking the full potential of sustainable cooling to accelerate emissions reductions,” said Avipsa Mahapatra, Climate Campaign Lead for the U.S. Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Read more

Refrigerants position by Secop

Selecting a refrigerant should be done with respect to the environment, but the job does not end after choosing a low GWP solution. We also need to take into consideration the other characteristics that could lead to a negative environmental impact. Secop has adopted this complete approach – to not bring additional harm to the Earth and also be fully green by offering sustainable products that are able to utilize natural refrigerants. Read more

Energy Recovery, ALDI US, Hydro-Québec and Pega Hrnjak win ATMO Awards America 2023

ATMOsphere, publisher of R744.com and organizer of the ATMOsphere (ATMO) America Summit 2023, announced the winners of the ATMO Awards/North America during a ceremony on June 12 at the Summit in Washington, D.C. Read more

F-gas revision hangs in the balance

An agreement on the F-gas regulation (517/2014) revision proposals hang in the balance after it was revealed that a third trilogue meeting will be required next month. Read more

Danish utility poised to supply 60MW of zero-emissions district heating with MAN’s CO₂ heat pumps

The Danish utility company DIN Forsyning is poised to supply the seaport town of Esbjerg, Denmark, with zero-emissions district heating by using two industrial-sized CO₂ (R744) heat pumps from MAN Energy Solutions that are powered by offshore wind farms and heat from the Wadden Sea. Read more

Study finds that cascade heat pump using mixtures of R744/R600 and R744/R601 produce COP of 4.5 and hot water above 100°C

A new study has found that a cascade water-to-water heat pump system employing a mixture of natural refrigerants CO₂ and butane (R744 and R600, respectively) in the low stage (LS) and a mixture of CO₂ and pentane (R601) at the high stage (HS) can deliver a COP of 4.5 and hot water above 100°C (212°F). Read more

Spain becomes 150th to ratify Kigali

Having filed its provisional application to comply with the Kigali Amendment in January 2022, Spain has now registered its acceptance of the treaty to phase down HFC refrigerants. Read more