Investing in refrigeration tech- Hawaii

A team from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is tackling the climate challenge posed by refrigrants.

The National Science Foundation announced on Aug. 21 that the University of Hawai‘i and five other universities have been awarded $26 million to establish a fourth generation National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center to create sustainable refrigerant technology.

The new National Science Foundation Gen-4 Engineering Research Center Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub, or ERC EARTH, aims to create a transformative “sustainable refrigerant lifecycle” by lowering hydrofluorocarbon emissions; creating safe, property-balanced replacement refrigerants; and increasing the energy efficiency of HVACR systems.

 Ralf I. Kaiser, Project Lead believes it is fitting that the University of Hawai‘i team, which includes four professors in addition to Kaiser himself is playing an important role in the project.

“Hawaiʻi is increasingly vulnerable to global warming and its impacts, including more frequent and severe weather extremes and sea level rise,” Kaiser said.

You can learn more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL_lQU-NEfE