End-Users Day 2011

On 7 October, eurammon's "Future-proof solutions for Today" symposium was held in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The initiative for natural refrigerants invited members of the branch and its end users to an extensive programme of lectures to actively share their experience with applications using natural refrigerants. During the event, the initiative conferred the new Honour Award for companies and bestowed the eurammon Natural Refrigeration Award on this year's winners.

"It's no longer sufficient just to think about tomorrow", concludes Mark Bulmer, member of the eurammon Board and host of this year's symposium on behalf of Georg Fischer Piping Systems. According to Bulmer, the changeover from HCFCs to HFCs in the past was carried out without sufficient long-term planning, given that in some cases the refrigerants still had very high global warming potential. "We must think ahead and do whatever we can to develop even more environmentally friendly and energetically efficient solutions. This is why regular exchange is so important." The lectures presented at the symposium by speakers with a wealth of practical experience illustrated the possibilities available to companies today for using natural refrigerants in refrigeration and air-conditioning applications, looking at prevailing statutory framework conditions as well as current research and engineering work into new applications and developments.

Politics and practice

Information about thecurrent F-Gas Regulation and its implications for end-users of refrigeration systems was provided by Elisabeth Munzert from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Dr. Dieter Mosemann, eurammon's representative in the expert group reviewing the efficiency of the F-Gas Regulation in Brussels demanded greater political commitment to natural refrigerants.

Current end-user experience with applications using natural refrigerants in the food sector was illustrated by Robert Arthur from the British retailer Marks & Spencer, and Ryan McNeill from Nestlé's English branch in Halifax. Marks & Spencer wants to forge ahead with innovations and energy efficiency at two "Learning Stores" each year, bringing about 50% reductions in CO₂ by 2015. By 2030, the company plans to manage without HFCs completely, using CO₂ and hydrocarbons as refrigerants instead.

Nestlé presented a project based on thermo-couplings with steam. The solution aims to reduce local dependency on steam and use the waste heat from a refrigeration system. Refrigeration solutions with natural refrigerants are also developed by Currenta, a service provider for the chemical industry and associated sectors. The special challenges and solutions for central refrigeration systems with several tonnes of refrigerants were illustrated by refrigeration specialist Dr. Johannes Wilhelmi, taking the Bayer site in Leverkusen as an example.

Dr. Frank Bünting from the German Engineering Federation VDMA looked at ascertaining the life cycle costs of refrigeration systems. With a sample calculation based on the VDMA  Standard 34160, he worked together with the refrigeration planning firm KWN Engineering to compare the costs of a direct R404A refrigeration system with an indirect R723/R744 system. Danny Heuvelmans from GEA Refrigeration Netherlands gave an informative overview of current developments and products for air-conditioning and heat pump applications also for smaller output ranges and physically restricted capacities.

eurammon Awards 2011 – now also for the first time with a company award

F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG is another end-user with consistent long-term plans. The company aims to replace all HFC-based refrigeration systems by 2015. eurammon has rewarded this ambitious project with its first ever company award.

The winners of this year's eurammon Natural Refrigeration Awards are equally ambitious: Niel Hayes from Colorado / USA and Behzad Abolhassani Monfared from Sweden convinced the audience with presentations about their projects on the "Study of Carbon Dioxide Condensation in Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers" and the "Design and Construction of a Small Ammonia Heat Pump". The third prize went to Steffen Benz from Germany for his work on "Experimental Studies and Simulations for Dimensioning a Diffusion Absorption Refrigeration Machine with Direct Solar-Thermal Drive.

The next information event in Schaffhausen is scheduled for June 2012.

eurammon Natural Refrigeration Award 2011

At the 2011 eurammon End-Users Day eurammon presented the Natural Refrigeration Award to this year’s winners. First place was awarded to Niel Hayes from the Washington State University and his thesis on the "Study of Carbon Dioxide Condensation in Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers". Second place went to Behzad Abolhassani Monfared from Sweden for his dissertation on "Design and Construction of a Small Ammonia Heat Pump”. Hayes and Monfared introduced their works to the audience in the context of the lecture event. The third place 2011 went to Steffen Benz from Germany for his work on "Experimental Studies and Simulations for Dimensioning a Diffusion Absorption Refrigeration Machine with Direct Solar-Thermal Drive".

eurammon Honour Award 2011

For the first time the eurammon Honour Award was presented for forward-looking exemplary projects that companies develop in the context of sustainable, energy-efficient refrigeration and air-conditioning. The Award was presented to F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG. The company aims to replace all HFC-based refrigeration systems by 2015. eurammon has rewarded this ambitious project with its first ever company award.

About the eurammon Natural Refrigeration Award

The eurammon Natural Refrigeration Award is a prize being awarded for the best academic thesis paper on the subject of natural refrigerants. The Initiative for Natural Refrigerants is jointly hosting the €5,000 award together with an associated university and an associated magazine every second year. In addition, eurammon invites the winners to present their thesis paper to an international audience at an event hosted by the initiative. eurammon wants to support young scientists and motivating them to do further research into refrigeration with natural refrigerants. In light of the current debate on climate, it is important to invest in sustainable technologies minimizing total emissions arising from refrigeration equipment. All graduates of universities, technical and other colleges, and similar institutes of higher education whose thesis was submitted as a doctoral, master’s or bachelor’s thesis, or final paper for a similar degree are welcome to apply for the award. The thesis paper must be devoted to the topic of refrigeration technology with natural refrigerants – e.g. ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons or water. An international panel of judges from academia, business and the media picks the winning entries.