Rajan Rajendran, Ph.D., vice president, engineering services and sustainability for Emerson Climate Technologies, says the live refrigerant webinar he moderated from the floor of AHR Expo was a success. The AHR Expo was held Jan. 21-23 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.
"The topic of refrigerants is one of the most dynamic, evolving subjects in the refrigeration and air condition industries today," Rajendran says. "Worldwide, the desire to limit the global warming potential (GWP) of refrigerants is a growing concern. And, in some regions, such as the European Union, the pressure to phase out F-gases is resulting in the wider adoption of new and alternative refrigerant types in many common applications. While we witnessed the transition from CFCs to HCFCs and HFCs in the 1980s and 1990s, increasing growth of developing nations such as China and India is prompting regulators and refrigerant equipment manufacturers to explore the next generation of refrigerants. Already, there has been significant progress in this effort. “I was fortunate enough to invite some of the industry’s thought leaders on this subject to discuss the current refrigerant trends and take a look at what’s on the horizon,” Rajendran says. “Our distinguished guests weighed in on the plethora of refrigerants that are
being developed as current, low-GWP alternatives and future, lower GWP transitional options come into view.”
Rajendran’s guests for the webinar, which drew a large crowd during the AHR Expo, were (in photo, left to right) Mark Spatz, Honeywell; Brett Van Horn, Arkema; and Barbara Minor, DuPont. Rajendran is pictured at right.
“As our conversation on refrigerants revealed, the trend toward lower GWP gases will continue to shape our industry in the decades to come. You can trust that Emerson will be on the forefront of these developments.” Rajendran says.
Find this and other webinars at emersonclimate.com/makingsensewebinars.