October Chapter Meeting – Membership Promotion Meeting
FREE FOR NON MEMBERS!
N EW MEETING LOCATION! – THE CHESHIRE
Date: Monday, October 21, 2024
Location: Basso | The Cheshire – 7036 Clayton Rd, St. Louis, MO 63117 and Virtual Option.
Registration Closes NOON Friday, October 18th
EVENT SCHEDULE:
10:30AM– 11:00 AM Registration & Networking
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – The Future of Refrigerants
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – Natural Refrigerants Challenge
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SPEAKER: Steve Kujak, Director of Next Generation Refrigerants Research for Trane Technologies
PRESENTATION 1 : The Future of Refrigerants
New societal environmental demands to control climate change are driving the development of new regulatory policies to restrict and lower the direct GWP (global warming potential) impact of F-gases. The HVAC&R industry is currently being challenged to invest significant resources to understand the best refrigerants that meet the above requirements. However, there are many uncertainties and challenges given the ever-changing global regulatory environment, within regions, country, state, and sometimes locally by city.
Safe non-flammable low toxicity F-gases allowed for an exponential increase in the standard of living of society through increased food productivity, reduction in heat related deaths, increased worker productivity and migration of people to cities and to hotter climates. The orderly transition from CFCs to HCFCs and HFCs achieved a balance between the societal environmental demands for reduced ozone depletion while continuing to improve the standard of living in developing countries and minimize the societal safety (nonflammable refrigerants) impacts for everyone.
Today designers are being asked to consider new lower direct GWP unsaturated hydrofluorocarbons (HFOs) refrigerants, some of which are slightly flammable under certain conditions, as well as revisiting the application of natural refrigerants, like carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrocarbons, and water.
This presentation will provide an update on new lower GWP alternatives introduced into the marketplace and it will highlight some important considerations, particularly flammability, that engineers, designers, and building owners should keep in mind regarding next-generation refrigerants.
PRESENTATION 2 : The Natural Refrigerants Challenge
Societal environmental demands to minimize the effects of climate change contributions from high global warming (GWP) refrigerants has pushed today’s designers to consider a wide variety of refrigerant possibilities which has renewed interest in natural refrigerants. Natural refrigerants are called “natural” because they can occur directly or indirectly in nature, but these are manufactured through industrial means.
The HVAC&R industry is currently being challenged to invest significant resources to understand the right refrigerants for the right application that balances the sustainability and comfort, or process needs for society. While natural refrigerants or atmospheric refrigerants have de minimis GWPs contributions, they have not gained wide scale adoption because they present many challenges in designing an optimal HVACR design. These challenges include safety, efficiency, materials compatibility and chemical stability.
F-gases allowed for refrigerants that were safe (non-flammable, low toxicity) with high efficiency with good materials compatibility and chemical stability. These F-gases features allowed for an exponential increase in the standard of living of society through increased food productivity, reduction in heat related deaths, increased worker productivity and migration of people to cities and to hotter climates.
This presentation will provide a history, a comprehensive review of potential naturals refrigerants and review past/current of natural refrigerants and their challenges to their wide scale adoption in HVACR products.
SPEAKER
Steve Kujak is the director of Next Generation Refrigerants Research for Trane Technologies Over the past 30+ years, he has been involved in technology development of new refrigerants, lubricants and HVACR system designs. Steve has been an author or co-author on 60+ publications related to refrigerants and has 40+ patents related to HVAC products.
ASHRAE Member since 2005. Recognition – Distinguished and Exceptional service member. Crosby Field Award (Best Presentation of Technical Paper) and 2 Time George Briley Award (Best Refrigeration Article in ASHRAE Journal)
Steve’s industry involvement is global and currently involvement includes;
•Member of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) – RTOC (Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning and Heat Pumps Technical Options Committee
•Past Chair of ASHRAE Standard 34 – Designation & Safety Classification of Refrigerants
•Past Chair of the Refrigeration Committee Technology Committee for Comfort, Process, and the Cold Chain (REF-CPCC)
•Vice Chair of AHRI 700 – Standard for Specification for Refrigerants•2022-2024 ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer on Refrigerants
Steve lives with his wife Annette on the Mississippi River in Brownsville, Minnesota where they both enjoy the beauty the drift-less region provides. Steve holds Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
