Refrigerants

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is increasing the options for refrigerants used in various types of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in the United States to offer alternatives with low global warming potential (GWP). 

Measuring the evaporator’s superheat value is an important part of analyzing a system’s performance. If a lower-than-normal value is measured, too much refrigerant is entering the evaporator for the heat load. If a higher-than-normal value is measured, too little refrigerant is entering the evaporator for the heat load. 

The aggressive environmental and regulatory positions in Sacramento have caused the rest of the U.S. to monitor policymaking and enforcement out West. And, more often than not, those policies have ended up as the blueprint for federal regulations.

CO₂ is primarily used in cascade systems that include ammonia, in booster systems in supermarkets, and as a stand-alone refrigerant for transcritical-configured systems.

Everyone talks about what it initially costs a supermarket to switch to a 100 percent CO2 commercial refrigeration system. But start thinking about the costs that come next — on everything from electricity to regulatory compliance — and the return on investment on CO2 begins to make a great deal of sense.

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.

So, supermarket owners want refrigeration systems that are energy efficient to hold down costs and pro-environmental for political correctness. But for engineers, contractors, and technicians that approach may not be all that easy, whether bringing a new store online or retrofitting an existing one.

Appliance Recycling Centers of America Inc. (ARCA) announced that it has been granted a patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,931,289) covering its systems, methods, and techniques for facilitating the recovery and recycling of refrigerants and oil from air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, and other appliances that contain refrigerant.

The No. 1 trend in HVAC refrigeration is the increase in R-22 prices as the supply-demand equation sorts itself out. 

Super Change™ has been developed to allow a fast and easy conversion from R-22 refrigerant or any mineral/alkylbenzene oil system, to any hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant including polyolester (POE)-based R-407C and R-410A.