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Article: Alternative refrigerants attract attention: environmental issues driving change again.(COOLING TECHNOLOGIES)
- Article from:
- Appliance Design
- Article date:
- April 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The vast majority of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, both residential and commercial, rely on vapor compression systems to remove heat. For decades, ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbuns (CFC) were the refrigerant of choice for such systems. CFCs, however, were banned in the 1990s because of their ozone depletion potential (ODP). This led to an often costly and painful conversion to non-ozone depleting, hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs) refrigerants. For some, especially Europeans, this transition was only a bridge to other refrigerants because of the high global warming potential (GWP) of HFCs. Further research and development has led to ...