ShareGustav Lorentzen conference 2022
After two years of pandemic during which the conferences were either cancelled or held online, the IIR had the pleasure of organising a conference on site, in Norway. It was attended by 332 participants. The papers will soon be available in FRIDOC.
The International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) has always been interested in natural refrigerants: ammonia, CO2, hydrocarbons, water... However, a real impetus was given from the end of the 1980s, thanks in particular to Professor Gustav Lorentzen, from Trondheim in Norway, who boosted research on CO2 as a refrigerant in order to replace chlorinated refrigerants (CFCs, HCFCs), which were condemned in the long term by the Montreal Protocol (1987), and without using other synthetic refrigerants, HFCs, which have a high greenhouse effect, like CFCs and HCFCs.
Gustav Lorentzen has held various responsibilities within the IIR, the most important of which was Chairman of the General Conference. He was appointed Honorary President of the IIR and endowed the IIR with a "Gustav Lorentzen Fund", which every four years at the International Congress of Refrigeration, awards the IIR's most symbolic prize to a particularly deserving researcher who has had important responsibilities.
We have also named the IIR conferences on natural refrigerants initiated by our Honorary President “the Gustav Lorentzen Conferences”. The last one was held from 12 to 15 June 2022 in Trondheim. A tribute was paid to Gustav Lorentzen.
After two years of pandemic during which the conferences were either cancelled or held online, we had the pleasure of organising a conference on site.
It was attended by 332 participants (a record) and included 17 plenary lectures, 25 posters and 132 oral presentations. Both universities and public research centres and industry were represented. It was also the occasion to organise the SofiA workshop and the ENOUGH project meeting, in particular the of the European Commission where natural refrigerants are clearly the solution advocated, both in Africa and in Europe in these two cases.
The IIR working group CaRe (Career in Refrigeration) also organised a speed networking event dedicated to students and young researchers. The objective was to allow senior experts to share their experiences of working in the RACHP+R sector, and students and early career researchers to ask them questions in face-to-face sessions of 10 minutes each. The event brought together 22 students and 22 experts. For the students, this was a golden opportunity to meet passionate senior people working in the field of refrigeration that they might never had the chance to meet in other circumstances and that could inspire them or even influence their career path.
The interest in natural refrigerants is growing and the testimonies, especially from Europe, but also from Asia and America, have shown this. Technologies are improving, both in terms of energy efficiency and installation safety, more suitable standards are emerging, and public authorities in many countries and international organisations are promoting them in regulations and projects. And this is not the end of the story.
Hence, the IIR has decided to hold a new Gustav Lorentzen Conference on Natural Refrigerants in the US, at the University of Maryland, in August 2024.
In the meantime, we invite you to attend the IIR Ammonia and CO2 Conference in Ohrid, Northern Macedonia, 27-29 April 2023, and the International Congress of Refrigeration in Paris, 21-25 August 2023, to follow all these ongoing technical developments.