Refrigeration sector monitoring

Briefs: Largest climatic laboratory

The McKinley Climatic Laboratory, located in the US Air Force Eglin Base in Florida, USA, which began testing in 1947, is the largest climate testing facility in the world. The temperature inside the 77 x 61 x 21 m hangar, with a 4700 m² base...

• Publication date : 2011/02/11

Humidity greatly impacts emissions from air conditioning

The environmental impact of controlling humidity in air conditioning may be larger than the impact of reducing temperatures, according to research from the National Renewable Energy...

• Publication date : 2022/07/04
• Subjects: Figures, economy, Environment

Research & Development: A cooling curtain made of a porous triple-layer membrane

A doctoral student at ETH Zurich's Functional Materials Laboratory has developed a cooling curtain made of a porous triple-layer membrane.

• Publication date : 2017/09/01

Neutrons provide first images of refrigerant flow

Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have captured undistorted snapshots of refrigerants flowing through small heat exchangers, helping to further elucidate characteristics of heat transfer.

• Publication date : 2015/05/28

Linear compressor key to fridge efficiency?

The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Whirlpool are collaborating to design a domestic refrigerator that could cut energy use by up to 40% compared with current models.

• Publication date : 2015/06/15

Photovoltaic thermal system combined with adsorption cooling achieves 75% efficiency

Researchers from IBM Zurich research laboratory combined photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal techniques in a high-concentration PV thermal (HCPVT) system to achieve efficient electrical cooling output without the need for extra cells.

• Publication date : 2013/10/25

R410A/R22 alternatives for AC in high-ambient temperature environments: R32 and R290

The final US Oak Ridge National Laboratory report – presented during MOP27 in Dubaï – compares the performance of low-GWP alternative refrigerants to HFC R410A in mini-split air conditioners (ACs) under high-ambient-temperature conditions.

• Publication date : 2016/05/11

Household refrigerators: HFO performance as drop-in replacement for R-134a

During the IIR co-sponsored International Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Conference at Purdue in 2012, K.M Karber et al. from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States, presented* the results of a performance test on R1234yf and R1234ze,...

• Publication date : 2013/06/07

Improving air conditioner efficiency could avoid up to 100bn tonnes of CO2

The report “Benefits of Leapfrogging to Super-efficiency and Low Global Warming Potential Refrigerants in Air Conditioning” by the L. Berkeley National Laboratory states that improving the energy efficiency of room air conditioners to the level of...

• Publication date : 2015/12/18

Briefs: A CO2 secondary refrigerant system to test icebreakers

Travelling through the North Pole's ice-capped seas could reduce sea transport distances between Hamburg and Osaka, Japan, or Shanghai, China, for instance, by more than 4000 nautical miles, thus allowing for great time and financial savings. The...

• Publication date : 2009/02/25

A Research Project on Magnetic Refrigeration in Denmark

Very few laboratories are dedicated to research on magnetic refrigeration, but their number and the number of countries involved is slowly growing. The Danish Council for Strategic Research has recently donated 14 million DKK to the Risø National...

• Publication date : 2007/05/23

Expansion in Purdue University will house a “smart-buildings” lab

Purdue University is expanding the Ray W. Herrick Laboratories. The expanded labs will house the Center for High Performance Buildings, where research is focused on new equipment and operational technologies to develop an understanding of the...

• Publication date : 2011/08/17

Brief: Freezer in space

Leonardo, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module used to transport payloads to the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-121 contains a freezer called MELFI (Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer). MELFI, provided by the European...

• Publication date : 2005/07/19

IIR corporate members news: CERN is 50

On October 19, 2004, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), a corporate member of the IIR, officially celebrated its 50th anniversary in a ceremony attended by many government representatives to pay tribute to the discoveries made by...

• Publication date : 2005/02/11

Briefs: Cryocooling in outer space

MELFI (Minus Eighty degrees Celsius Laboratory Freezer) has been developed for the International Space Station (ISS) under a European Space Agency (ESA) contract for NASA. It is used to preserve biological and scientific samples until they return...

• Publication date : 2007/11/20

CERN’s 50th anniversary

On October 19, 2004, CERN (Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire: European Organization for Nuclear Research) will officially celebrate its 50th anniversary in a ceremony to be attended by the Spanish, French and Swiss Heads of State, along with...

• Publication date : 2004/11/19

Solar cooling: Developing countries

In order to help Jean-Louis Julliard, a French producer, market local-fish precooked meals in Mali, Lionel Bataille improved existing solar-cooling technology developed by a CNRS laboratory in Perpignan, France. The cooling system used a...

• Publication date : 2011/02/04

Cryo-Evolution

Thanks to advances in new freezing techniques, Israeli scientists have successfully transplanted whole frozen and thawed ovaries in sheep, retrieved oocytes from these ovaries and triggered them in the laboratory into early embryonic development,...

• Publication date : 2005/10/26

Briefs: Purdue University

Purdue University will create a USD 23.5 million Center for High Performance Buildings to design systems for future structures that are more environmentally and user friendly, energy efficient, and safe. The project is funded by the US Commerce...

• Publication date : 2010/05/27

Markets: Reduced cooling and heating might improve health

Results of a study performed by Berkeley Lab. - a US Department of Energy national laboratory - suggest that operating buildings in ways designed to save energy - with indoor temperatures slightly cooler in winter and warmer in summer - does more...

• Publication date : 2009/05/18

Magnetic cooling takes off

- The principle of magnetic cooling is based on the magnetocaloric effect, which was discovered in 1881 by Warburg. Magnetocaloric materials heat up when they are positioned in a magnetic field and cool down to a lower temperature than their...

• Publication date : 2005/02/11

Briefs: Ice slurries, heart attack victims and surgery patients

In cardiac arrest victims, without fresh oxygen from blood pumped through the body, brain cells start to die in just minutes. Within 10-20 minutes after the heart stops beating, even if doctors can get the heart beating again, the brain has died....

• Publication date : 2009/12/09

R&D

The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed a new air-conditioning system combining membranes, evaporative coolers and desiccants into a single device with the objective to suit to all climates,...

• Publication date : 2011/02/07

Intelligent fridges

- It is estimated that networked fridges will be widely used by 2015. How do consumers feel about such fridges that monitor product use, create shopping lists and arrange deliveries online? A recent survey involving 4600 shoppers in 8 countries...

• Publication date : 2008/08/12

New solar-cooling technology for cooling-freezing

Refrigeration is often based on compressor technology which consumes electricity. A recently developed system making it possible to achieve relatively low temperatures solely using solar energy has been designed by PROMES, a laboratory working...

• Publication date : 2007/05/04