What is the Best Refrigerant and What is the Best Refrigeration System?

Published by Brian Coyle on

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A galaxy of Star speakers from the UK’s largest independent industrial refrigeration engineering company, Star Refrigeration, are taking part at the 12th IIR Gustav Lorentzen Natural Working Fluids Conference in August to offer answers to this and other questions about the future of natural refrigerants to an international audience of end-users, experts and policy makers.

A regular speaker and sponsor of the leading industry event, Star Refrigeration will have a strong presence at this year’s conference with eight company representatives presenting papers on technical and economic aspects as well as the latest developments in ammonia and CO2 refrigeration and heat pump technologies.

Focusing on how the industry can cement a sustainable future for natural working fluids in the increasingly challenging global, political, legislative and economic environment,  the conference provides delegates with industry insight from the sector’s leaders.

Speaking about the Conference and Star’s input, Rob Lamb, Group Sales and Marketing Director of Star Refrigeration, said, “Star is delighted to share with the industry the experiences and knowledge gained from our continuous research and extensive work on industrial ammonia and CO2 refrigeration and heat pump systems.  Our engineers are working hard to ensure the sustainable future of natural refrigerants by re-engineering systems to improve reliability, safety and efficiency as well as co-operating with our suppliers to reduce capital costs of ownership and we are glad the IIR found value in all the papers submitted.”

“We are honoured to be a part of the event and are very much looking forward to meeting colleagues and discussing the industry with other stakeholders from around the world.”

Held every two years at various locations around the world, the 12th IIR Gustav Lorentzen Conference will cover a wide range of topics on natural working fluids, including safe and reliable operation, high temperature heat pumps, energy efficiency, supermarket applications, cooling with air or water, and evaporative cooling. Bringing together end users, owners and operators, academic researchers, industrialists, policy makers, contractors, commissioners and operation installers, designers, building service consultants, manufacturers and technology providers, the bi-yearly conference is as much about learning as it is about networking with likeminded individuals.

There will be over 145 papers presented at the conference. Star will be leading eight sessions in total, including papers from John Clark and Angus Gillies who were recently honoured with the Lightfoot Medal Award at the IOR dinner last February for their pioneering research comparing evaporative and air cooled condensers in industrial applications which produced clear and straightforward evidence demonstrating that air-cooled condensers are the best option for industrial applications in the UK.

The following papers will be presented at the conference on a variety of topics:

Bruce Smeaton will shed light on “What is the best refrigerant and what is the best system?”

Dr. Lewis Brown will present a paper on “Experimental measurements and computational predictions of the gas flow field in a refrigerant helical oil separator”.

John Clark will explore “Economic comparison of pumped carbon dioxide as a volatile secondary fluid against traditional glycol systems”.

Andy Lamb and Nicky Cowan are co-authoring on “The design to maximise the cost effectiveness of an ammonia heat pump”.

Dermot Cotter will demonstrate “A Systematic Approach to Risk Assessing Ammonia Refrigeration Systems”.

Angus Gillies will speak about “Design considerations for industrial CO2 applications”.

Dr. Forbes Pearson will investigate the “Influence of refrigerant choice on performance of air source heat pumps”.

Star’s Group Managing Director Dr. Andy Pearson, who is also serving as the Conference Chairman and will be introducing the event, will draw on the company’s vast experience to share the “Lessons learned from a reappraisal of the original heat pump” and “Ventilation for ammonia systems”.

The full programme for the conference is available to view here.

Previously held in Hangzhou, China, Sydney, Australia and Indiana, the 2016 IIR Gustav Lorentzen Natural Working Fluids Conference will be held at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, between the 21st and 24th of August.

The company has also arranged two site visits during the conference. Whilst visiting ASDA in Falkirk and Brake Brothers in Newhouse, delegates will also have the opportunity to take part in two technical tours and onsite short courses arranged by Star Refrigeration to demonstrate the practical applications of ammonia and CO2 refrigerants on the 23rd August.

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