Lead Performers: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) – Golden, CO, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) –Oak Ridge, TN
October 4, 2017
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Lead Performers: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) – Golden, CO
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) – Oak Ridge, TN
FY17 DOE Funding:
NREL - $300,000
ORNL - $100,000
Project Term: October 1, 2016 – October 1, 2017
Funding Type: Lab Award
Project Objective
Using the expertise of the Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) seek to understand relevant manufacturing competitive advantages across the refrigerant manufacturing supply chain, U.S.-specific competitive advantages, the implications of scaling up production and usage of refrigerants, system level tradeoffs, and manufacturing location decisions.
The project will include an assessment of the current state of existing and low-GWP refrigerants for all major end-use applications, including HVAC and those outside of the HVAC industry. The project will incorporate a market overview, techno-economic analysis, and supply chain assessment to determine the production, distribution, consumption, costs, and potential operating efficiency impacts. Trends and ongoing research will also be documented as will manufacturing transition costs associated with changing refrigerants in future systems.
Project Impact
Current refrigerants used in vapor compression systems, as propellant, and as blowing agents have varying range of global warming potential that is often several thousand times more than CO2 per unit mass. Given the growing worldwide demand for vapor compression systems and housing sectors, the potential impact from the refrigerants themselves is substantial. However, it is critical to incorporate the greater system level impacts to understand the complete impact of current vs. alternative refrigerants on global warming. Examples include potential for reduced system efficiency with alternative refrigerants, components that require more energy to manufacture, and existing users and environmental release sources. These analyses will serve to inform decision makers on the true potential global warming impacts, U.S. refrigerant production implications, and cost tradeoffs between different classes of refrigerants.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: Sven Mumme
Lead Performers: Margaret Mann, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Omar Abdelaziz, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.