Danfoss, a leading manufacturer of high-efficiency electronic and mechanical components and controls for air-conditioning, heating, refrigeration and motion systems, participated in ATMOsphere America 2012, June 12-13 in Washington, DC. During the conference, which focused on the business case for natural refrigerants in the United States and Canada, Danfoss Vice President, Public Industry Affairs, Torben Funder-Kristensen made a presentation on “Global Technology Trends and Development in CO2.”
In his presentation, Funder-Kristensen provided a historical overview of CO2 global technology developments during the past decade and discussed how the North American market can overcome adoption barriers – specifically training and capital costs constraints.
CO2 has proven to be a competitive and environmentally benign refrigerant for supermarket/food retail and industrial refrigeration applications. North American supermarkets are beginning to use CO2 refrigerant together with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with increasing frequency, while industrial applications using CO2 and ammonia (NH3) are also well accepted and will begin to dominate the market. Used together, CO2 and ammonia can help reduce system installation costs, as well as provide higher efficiencies resulting from the viscosity of CO2 and superior heat transfer properties.
Funder-Kristensen commented, “The use of CO2 has been shown to trigger innovation. CO2 and ammonia cascade systems have the potential to become the standard for low temperature applications due to the lower investment costs and, more important, lower operating costs. Heat reclaim provides a major opportunity to be realized in the near future.”
Robert Wilkins, vice president, public affairs for Danfoss North America, also participated in the two-day conference, moderating a session on refrigerant standards, regulations and training that included presentations from the U.S. State Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, Underwriters Laboratories and the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society (RSES).
Wilkins commented, “The state of refrigerants has been a critical topic to many stakeholders within the HVACR industry in recent years, and the emergence of natural refrigerants is reshaping how manufacturers, contractors and end users approach industrial and commercial refrigeration applications – especially as more companies are being driven by the demand for corporate environmental responsibility, energy savings and the need for simple, resilient systems.”
ATMOsphere America 2012 was designed to promote the business case for natural refrigerants in North America. The event targeted decision makers from leading retailers, suppliers, associations and more. Topics for presentations and workshops explored end users (retailers and consumer brands) as well as technology providers from the commercial and industrial refrigeration, heat pump and air conditioning sectors. The event also looked at market trends and regulations, standards and training as they relate to natural refrigerants.