News about IIR Member: Cemagref

Researchers from Cemagref, corporate member of the IIR, in conjunction with the GREThE in Grenoble, and financed by the Agency for the environment and energy management (ADEME), have developed a prototype refrigerating system that allows the quantity of refrigerant used to be reduced tenfold using mini-channel technology, whilst maintaining equal energy efficiency. The study was carried out on low capacity refrigeration units under 15 kW, which according to a 2002 census represents 80% of all refrigeration units in France and over 40% of the total mass of liquid refrigerant. Current applications in France use approximately 16 000 tonnes of refrigerants; this new application would allow for the load to be reduced to under 2000 tonnes. Also, cording to Cemagref, the expected 90% reduction in direct TEWI, and the 10-20% reduction in indirect TEWI, would allow for an overall reduction in TEWI of over 20%. In France, the use of this application in the 600 000 installations concerned would also allow for an equivalent reduction of 700 000 tonnes of CO2 per annum.