LONDON, Sept. 23,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbia's Fluorinated
Solutions business Koura has won the coveted award of Refrigeration
Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards.
At an awards ceremony last night (September 22) at London's Grosvenor House Ballroom, Koura
Klea® 473A was named the winning innovation from a shortlist
of five with judges praising the refrigerant's performance and
sustainable industry applications.
Klea 473A is designed as a non-flammable refrigerant to achieve
high performance with a significantly lower global warming
potential (GWP) than existing refrigerants, R-23 or R-508B, in
ultra-low temperature cooling applications such as high value cold
chain, vaccine storage, climate test chambers, transportation, and
other medical uses. This refrigerant has a unique combination of
high capacity and energy efficiency coupled with low temperature
glide as compared to other refrigerants developed as non-flammable
alternatives for R-23 or R-508B.
Today, manufacturers and users of ultra-low temperature
refrigeration systems are forced to choose between acceptable
cooling performance and the environmental impact of these
systems. Existing non-flammable refrigerants R-23 and R-508B
that are used in ultra-low temperature systems have GWP of 14,800
and 13,400 respectively. Klea 473A breaks this trade-off with
energy efficiency comparable to R-23, capacity similar to R-508B,
and a GWP of 1,830, which is a +85% reduction.
Optimum charge sizes per system are typically slightly reduced
compared to R-23, giving a further potential reduction in GWP
inventory per system. Customer trials are showing that existing
system designs can easily adapt to this new refrigerant with little
to no modification. New systems are also being actively
designed to take advantage of the refrigerant's unique
properties.
Although Klea R-473A is not the only non-flammable alternative
refrigerant proposed for use in very low temperature cascade
systems, it has a significantly lower temperature glide, higher
vapor pressure, and higher latent heat than other R-23
alternatives, making the adaptation of existing system designs more
straightforward. Extensive trialling has also shown that it's
possible to operate climate chamber systems where the delivered
chamber temperature is as low as -75C.
Gregg
Smith, President of Orbia Fluorinated Solutions,
said:
"We are delighted that Klea 473A was named Refrigeration
Innovation of the Year at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards. This
award is fantastic recognition of our ongoing research and
development program, and the hard work of all our teams. Koura is
committed to innovation, providing customers across a variety of
industries worldwide with new solutions and low GWP refrigerants to
transform into a cleaner future.
"This product will offer an easy adaptation option for system
designers working in the very low temperature application areas who
wish to significantly reduce their usage of ultra-high GWP
refrigerants and who are contemplating larger system designs where
non-flammability is an essential requirement of the
refrigerant."
For more information on Koura, please visit:
www.kouraglobal.com
Notes for editors:
About Orbia
Orbia is a company driven by a shared purpose: to advance life
around the world. Orbia operates in the Polymer Solutions (Vestolit
and Alphagary), Building and Infrastructure (Wavin), Precision
Agriculture (Netafim), Connectivity Solutions (Dura-Line) and
Fluorinated Solutions (Koura) sectors. The five Orbia business
groups have a collective focus on expanding access to health and
wellness, reinventing the future of cities and homes, ensuring food
and water security, connecting communities to information and
accelerating a circular economy with basic and advanced materials,
specialty products and innovative solutions. Orbia has commercial
activities in more than 110 countries and operations in over 50,
with global headquarters in Boston, Mexico
City, Amsterdam and
Tel Aviv. To learn more, visit:
orbia.com.
About Orbia Fluorinated Solutions
(Koura)
Orbia's Fluorinated Solutions business Koura is a global leader
in the development, manufacture and supply of fluoroproducts that
play a fundamental role in enhancing everyday lives and shortening
the path to a sustainable, circular economy. Backed by over 35
years of experience, Koura's products are used in a vast range of
applications including electric vehicles and energy storage, urban
and rural infrastructure, indoor climate management, food and
medicine refrigeration and even in treating respiratory conditions
through the development of healthy and innovative low-GWP
propellants for metered-dose inhalers. Koura has 1,600 employees
and 13 manufacturing facilities worldwide, serving 60 countries
through a global sales and distribution network.
Media Contact
Monica Aguilar, Global Strategic
Marketing Director, Koura
monica.aguilar@kouraglobal.com
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