Danfoss’ 22nd EnVisioneering Symposium was titled “Refrigerants2Sustainability,” and focused on the challenges reshaping the refrigeration landscape. These include climate change, increased regulatory pressure, ever-increasing energy costs, contractor training on new low-GWP systems, and more.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a safety bulletin intended to inform companies that use anhydrous ammonia in bulk refrigeration operations how to avoid a hazard referred to as hydraulic shock.
The refrigerant landscape is preparing for a regulatory makeover. By 2018, approximately 80 percent of commercial refrigerators and ice machines will have to go through a redesign to meet new DOE standards for efficiency; the EPA is proposing to delist R-404A and R-134a in many commercial refrigeration applications; and more.
The Air Conditioning Contractors of America Educational Institute (ACCA-EI) Standards Task Team (STT) has announced an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) public review period for its BSR/ACCA 14 QMref -201x, “Quality Maintenance of Commercial Refrigeration Systems” as a revised industry standard.
Nestlé has announced that, as of January 2015, every new horizontal chest freezer it buys to store ice cream will use natural refrigerants rather than synthetic refrigerants. These new freezers represent 70 percent of Nestlé’s total spend on freezers.
The announcement a few months ago that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was proposing to decertify certain high-global warming potential (GWP) HFC refrigerants for use in a wide range of new commercial refrigeration equipment did not come as a surprise to the HVACR industry.
Global demand for commercial refrigeration equipment is forecast to increase 4.7 percent annually through 2018 to $36.5 billion, according to a new study from The Freedonia Group Inc., a Cleveland-based market research firm. Advances will be bolstered in large part by ongoing industrialization efforts in many of the world’s developing countries.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 800 million people worldwide go to bed hungry, while one-third or more of all food produced never reaches consumers due to spoilage and waste. In response to this issue, Carrier has announced its inaugural “World Cold Chain Summit to Reduce Food Waste.”
Earlier this year, I was editing and summarizing a report from The Freedonia Group regarding potential growth in commercial refrigeration. That name rang a loud bell with me — and not because it had anything to do with refrigeration.
Emerson Climate Technologies Inc. announced that it has launched E360, an initiative to help commercial refrigeration customers address the many issues and challenges facing them today.