Mar 13 2006
Engineers developing technologies that use environmentally friendly carbon dioxide as a refrigerant instead of conventional, synthetic global-warming and ozone-depleting chemicals will meet at Purdue University in mid-March to discuss the latest research.
The conference will include talks about applications ranging from soft drink vending machines to portable air conditioners used by the U.S. Army for a variety of roles, such as cooling troops and electronic equipment. Talks also will cover the use of carbon dioxide to run "heat pumps," which operate like air conditioners in reverse, to warm swimming pools and homes, said Eckhard Groll, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering who is organizing the conference.
Although carbon dioxide is a global-warming gas, conventional refrigerants, called hydrofluorocarbons, cause about 1,400 times more global warming than the same quantity of carbon dioxide. The tiny quantities of carbon dioxide that would be released from air conditioners would be insignificant compared to the huge amounts produced from burning fossil fuels for energy and transportation, Groll said.
"Carbon dioxide has unique characteristics that make it an ideal green-technology alternative for certain applications in refrigeration and heating," said Groll, who is developing carbon dioxide-based air conditioning systems as part of his research at Purdue's Ray W. Herrick Laboratories.
Engineers from industry and academia will discuss their work during the annual meeting of the Carbon Dioxide Interest Group, an international organization promoting carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. The conference will take place March 16-17 at the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue's Discovery Park, the university's hub for interdisciplinary research.
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