Refrigerants

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It’s one thing to announce new refrigerants. It is another thing to figure out how they will work in real-life situations. With the industry facing an apparent shift to low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, the performance of those gases is being carefully studied.

A new form of leak sealing has been developed that can deal with a wide range of refrigeration leak issues, saving money for everyone from the cost conscious walk-in equipment owner to the cash strapped college student with a leaky refrigerator.

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership has been providing the refrigeration sector with information on efforts to reduce refrigerant emissions and improve efficiencies of commercial equipment. The partnership also publishes service-related materials, the following of which is excerpted from those files.

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.

DuPont Fluorochemicals has announced the introduction of three new refrigerants in its DuPont™ Opteon® family, based on hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) technology. The company said these refrigerants have far lower global warming potential (GWP) than the products they are designed to replace.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its final phase down schedule regarding production and importation of HCFC-22 refrigerant. It calls for an immediate drop come this Jan. 1 from 51 million pounds allowed in 2014 to 22 million pounds in 2015.

Basically, the court ruled against New Era in this regard on the technicality that New Era “did not address these issues in its response to the motion for summary denial.”

The HVACR industry is always exploring new options that may lead to more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly refrigerants to keep facilities — and the people and technology in them — comfortably cool.

As the pending EPA phaseout diminishes supplies, the demand for R-22 is likely to increase, which may trigger additional criminal activity.

With the industry facing an apparent shift to low-GWP refrigerants, the performance of those gases is being carefully studied.