Encyclopedia of refrigeration

Kigali Amendment status per country

List of the 163 countries that have accepted, approved or ratified the Kigali Amendment as of November 15, 2024.

• Last update : 2024/11/15
• Langues : English
• Themes : Regulations and standardization (Montreal and Kyoto Protocols…)

Cryogenic nitrogen in the food and beverage industry

The adoption of cryogenic processes in the food and beverage industry is predominantly driven by liquid nitrogen (LIN), and it is the preferred candidate for food chilling and...

• Last update : 2023/11/07
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Freezing of foodstuffs

Global warming potential (GWP) of HFC refrigerants

Using the latest updated data from UNEP’s RTOC 2022 report, we have compiled the 100-year GWP and 20-year GWP values of hydrofluorocarbon-based (HFC) refrigerants. Our table includes...

• Last update : 2023/09/15
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : HFCs

Ice cream manufacturing, environmental impact and market data

From a physico-chemical point of view, ice cream is a complex, frozen multiphase mixture. The manufacturing process includes several stages of freezing which are described in this...

• Last update : 2023/06/30
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Ice creams

Liquefied Natural Gas: production process and cold energy recovery

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been cooled to about -160 °C and turned into a liquid to facilitate transportation and storage. A typical LNG supply chain...

• Last update : 2023/06/23
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : LNG and LPG

Cryogenics in the pharmaceutical industry: drug design and bioavailability improvement

Research activities in the pharmaceutical sector focus primarily on developing novel drug formulations which can elicit the desired response upon being administered to the patient...

• Last update : 2023/03/10
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Freeze-drying in biology and medicine, Cryobiology, cryomedicine: general information

Cold storage conditions for fruits and vegetables

Practical recommendations for the cold storage of over 200 cultivars of fruits, vegetables and herbs (storage temperatures, relative humidity, storage time, controlled atmosphere...

• Last update : 2023/01/16
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Fruit, Vegetables

Environmental impact of the ice cream industry

This summary document describes the environmental impact of ice cream manufacturing, which is mainly due to the energy consumption and refrigerants used.

• Last update : 2022/11/17
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : General information on environment (climate change, ozone depletion…)

Additive manufacturing of regenerators for caloric cooling

In many areas of engineering, additive manufacturing allows the production of complex and multifunctional products that could not be manufactured using traditional methods. In the...

• Last update : 2022/09/16
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Caloric cooling (magnetocaloric, electrocaloric, elastocaloric and barocaloric cooling)

Additive manufacturing of heat exchangers

In the refrigeration industry, additive manufacturing (colloquially referred to as “3D printing”) makes it possible to fabricate novel, complex and potentially more energy efficient...

• Last update : 2022/09/07
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Evaporators, condensers and other heat exchangers

Hydrocarbon refrigerants

Hydrocarbons such as R290 (propane), R600a (isobutane) or R1270 (propene/propylene) are low GWP non-toxic natural refrigerants with excellent thermodynamic properties. They offer an...

• Last update : 2022/06/22
• Langues : French, English
• Themes : Hydrocarbons, Containment, refrigerant charge reduction

Nanorefrigerants

Nanorefrigerants are created by adding nanoparticles in suspension to a base refrigerant. They have a thermal conductivity that is 15% to 104% higher than that of the corresponding...

• Last update : 2022/06/17
• Langues : English, French
• Themes : Nanofluids

Thermophysical properties of hydrocarbon refrigerants

Thermophysical properties of over 20 hydrocarbon refrigerants, including single-component and blends.

• Last update : 2022/06/17
• Langues : English
• Themes : Hydrocarbons, Blends

Thermophysical properties of HFC refrigerants

Thermophysical properties of over 100 HFC refrigerants, including single-component and blends.

• Last update : 2022/06/17
• Langues : English
• Themes : HFCs, HFO et HCFO, Blends

Thermophysical properties of HFO refrigerants

Thermophysical properties of over 50 HFO refrigerants, including single-component and blends.

• Last update : 2022/06/17
• Langues : English
• Themes : HFO et HCFO, Blends

Global HFC emissions from the refrigeration sector

This table shows HFC emissions from the refrigeration sector – including air conditioning – in million tonnes of CO2 equivalent for about 40 countries that are signatories...

• Last update : 2022/01/20
• Langues : English
• Themes : General information on environment (climate change, ozone depletion…)

For IIR members only

Heat pump stock in Europe

This table presents the stock of installed heat pumps, the CO2 emissions avoided and the number of jobs in the heat pump sector in Europe.

• Last update : 2021/12/14
• Langues : English
• Themes : Heat pumps, energy recovery: economics and statistics

For IIR members only

Global cold storage capacity

This table presents the cold storage capacity in about 50 countries, based on data from the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA).

• Last update : 2021/12/06
• Langues : English
• Themes : Refrigerated storage: economics and statistics