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Prospects for policy and regulatory actions to reduce, restrict, and even eliminate the use of today’s HFC refrigerants continue to exist and grow because of their relatively high global warming potentials (GWPs) and consequent impact on climate. In December 2015, a climate change agreement was completed in Paris that allows for changes to the Montreal Protocol to reduce the global warming impact of HFCs. Countries, like the US as well as the State of California, have followed suit with proposing plans to reduce impact of high global warming HFCs. On September 26, 2016, the U.S. EPA announced the SNAP (Significant New Alternatives Policy) final ruling that after January 1, 2024 no new chillers (any style/design/compressor/capacity) in the United States shall be sold with HFC refrigerants. 

 These regulations are leading to the development and investigation of a new class of refrigerants with lower GWPs.  Trade-offs between, GWP, flammability and specific capacity will need to be made and these trade-offs may result in the need for changes to equipment designs.  Some lower GWP refrigerants are begin introduced in many market segments. This seminar will provide an overview of proposed regulations and next generation refrigerant (NGR) technology available or under development and presents the state of understanding and development of these alternative by their environmetal, safety and design tradeoff’s.

Presenter Biography:

Steve Kujak is the director of Next Generation Refrigerants Research for Ingersoll Rand.  Over the past 24 years, he has led and been involved in numerous technology and product development projects involving development of new refrigerants, lubricants and compatibility of system materials Steve has been an author or co-author on 14 publications related to refrigerants and has 4 patents related to HVAC products. 

Steve is a member of ASHRAE and is involved in numerous refrigerant safety and use standards used globally by the HVACR industry.  He is a voting member of ASHRAE Standard 34 “Designation & Safety Classification of Refrigerants”, where he is the chair of the toxicity subcommittee.  He is the Chair for T.C 3.1 “Refrigerants and Secondary Coolants” and is a member of Research Administration Committee (RAC). He is also involved with AHRI and is participating in the Alternate Refrigerant Evaluation Program (AREP) and the ARTI Flammability Research Subcommittee.

He has a BS in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of North Dakota.