Refrigerant manufacturer Ineos Fluor has announced it has become a member of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership.

GreenChill is an EPA cooperative alliance set up to work with the supermarket industry and other stakeholders to promote technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce emissions of ozone-depleting substances, greenhouse gases, and increase refrigeration system energy efficiency, according to a statement from the manufacturer.

Ineos became entity No. 14 to join GreenChill in the 18 months since it was first announced.

“We are very happy to have Ineos Fluor as a GreenChill member,” said Julius Banks, acting branch chief of EPA’s Alternatives & Emissions Reduction Branch. “The HCFC-22 phaseout that begins in 2010 is leading many supermarkets to retrofit their existing refrigeration equipment to use nonozone-depleting refrigerants. Ineos Fluor is helping supermarkets reduce their impact on the ozone layer with its alternative refrigerants.”

Peter Geosits, commercial director of Ineos Fluor Americas, said, “We are delighted to be invited to join this important initiative. Ineos Fluor has a solid track record of product innovation and we continue to deliver new refrigerants to meet our customers’ environmental concerns. Our membership in the GreenChill initiative very much underpins this philosophy.”

Working in conjunction with EPA, the GreenChill partners’ role is to transition to non-ODP refrigerants, reduce emissions of both ODP and non-ODP refrigerants, and to promote supermarket use of advanced refrigeration technologies.

Said Geosits, “New generation HFC refrigerant technologies, such as KLEA 60 (R-407A), offer an ozone-benign option for replacing existing HCFC refrigerants such as R-22. KLEA 60 has been designed to reduce the overall impact supermarkets have on global warming through system energy efficiency and a reduced GWP in comparison with other HFC alternatives.

“Additionally, the close match of refrigeration properties between KLEA 60 and R-22 allows the industry to extend the life of existing equipment currently operating on R-22 with a quick and economical retrofit that simply involves a change of oil to polyolester lubricant (POE) and does not require changes to expansion valves or other major items of equipment.”

Ineos Fluor has manufacturing sites in Louisiana, Japan, and the United Kingdom and employs around 380 people worldwide.

Publication date:05/05/2008