2024 January Dinner

New Refrigerants

New societal environmental demands to control climate change are driving the development of new regulatory policies to restrict and lower the direct GWP (global warming potential) impact of F-gases. The HVAC&R industry is currently being challenged to invest significant resources to understand the best refrigerants that meet the above requirements. However, there are many uncertainties and challenges given the ever-changing global regulatory environment, within regions, country, state, and sometimes locally by city. Today designers are being asked to consider new lower direct GWP unsaturated hydrofluorocarbons (HFOs) refrigerants, some of which are slightly flammable under certain conditions, as well as revisiting the application of natural refrigerants, like carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrocarbons, and water.

This presentation will provide an update on new lower GWP alternatives introduced into the marketplace and it will highlight some important considerations, particularly flammability, that engineers, designers, and building owners should keep in mind regarding next-generation refrigerants.

Speaker: Steve Kujak

Our presenter, Steve Kujak, is the director of Next Generation Refrigerants Research for Trane Technologies. Over the past 30 years, he has been involved in technology development of new refrigerants, absorption chillers and IAQ cleaning technologies. Steve has been an author or co-author on 50+ publications related to refrigerants and has 30+ patents related to HVAC products. Steve is a distinguished member and lecturer for ASHRAE and is involved in numerous refrigerant safety and use standards used globally by the HVACR industry. He is the past chair of ASHRAE Standard 34 “Designation & Safety Classification of Refrigerants” and the vice-chair of the Refrigeration Committee Technology Committee for Comfort, Process, and the Cold Chain (REF-CPCC).