ARLINGTON, Va. — The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) is seeking the participation of domestic and foreign manufacturers and research laboratories for an AHRI-led, industry-wide cooperative research program. The Low Global Warming Potential (GWP) Alternative Refrigerants Evaluation Program (Low-GWP AREP) began earlier this year, and has since identified a group of synthetic and natural refrigerant candidates to be tested and evaluated as part of an effort to find promising low-GWP alternative refrigerants for air conditioning and refrigeration products.

“The intent of the program is to help industry select promising low-GWP refrigerants, understand technical challenges, avoid duplicative efforts, and efficiently use industry resources,” said Karim Amrane, AHRI vice president of regulatory and research.

AHRI invites applications from manufacturers and research laboratories from all over the world to test the refrigerant candidates in three categories: compressor calorimeter tests; drop-in system tests; and soft-optimized system tests. Companies interested in testing will be required to perform all tests at their laboratories with at least one candidate refrigerant compared to its baseline, using their own resources, at their own expense. Testing companies will benefit from having early access to testing results. The testing results and final reports will ultimately be made available to the public once approved by AHRI.