Emerson Offers Design/Testing Assistance
for Newly-Approved Refrigerants

The Design Services Network of Emerson Climate Technologies is available to assist in the design, development and testing for the refrigerants newly approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The announcement made by ECT in January is based on the recent announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding newly-approved refrigerants under its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP). In December 2011, the EPA announced the approval of R290 (propane), R600a (isobutane) and R441a for use in commercial and residential refrigerators and freezers.

The primary benefits of these substitute refrigerants would be to:

• Reduce the direct Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the refrigerant to near zero in order to significantly mitigate the refrigerant’s impact on global climate change
• Potentially improve equipment energy efficiency to reduce the indirect GWP of CO2 emissions generated during electricity production
• Reduce electricity demand and associated facility operating costs
• Employ “renewable” refrigerant gases which are by-products of various processes, thus generating a lower carbon footprint refrigerant at a lower cost than today’s manufactured alternatives.

“Emerson Climate Technologies fully supports initiatives to apply alternate refrigerants in an effort to mitigate the use of higher global warming potential refrigerants,” says Rajan Rajendran, Ph.D., director of engineering services at Emerson. “To date, Emerson has been involved in the selection and application of R290 propane compressors and condensing units. These have been tested in prototype equipment designs requiring 150 grams or less of propane refrigerant,” Rajendran says.

Propane compressors will be available in the Emerson AFE, ASE, RFT, and RST models and for its M line condensing units. Those interested should contact their Emerson sales representative for information on availability or send an email to NaturalRefrigerants.Climate@Emerson.com.