Guest Bio
Danielle Wright is the executive director of the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC). She has over 15 years of experience in energy efficiency and environmental impact initiatives.
Episode Summary
Host Vic Marinich is joined by Danielle Wright, executive director of the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC), to discuss the potential for natural refrigerants in the commercial refrigeration industry.
Main Points
- Natural, or future-proof, refrigerants, such as CO2, propane and ammonia, are those with the lowest global warming potential (GWP) of any refrigerants, with no PFAS. (5:10)
- Due to refrigerant transition regulations and the emissions targets of many companies, adoption of natural refrigerants as an alternative to HFCs is at an inflection point. (6:50)
- NASRC is bringing together food retail end users for monthly roundtable discussions to share ideas and approaches for natural refrigerant adoption. (13:15)
- Main challenge right now is training technicians to install and service equipment that uses natural refrigerants. A trained workforce is critical for adoption. NASRC is offering training summits for technicians. (13:50)
- While codes and standards are in place to support the transition to natural refrigerants in commercial refrigeration, they are not yet in place on the HVAC side. There is potential to use CO2 and propane in heat pumps, but the codes and standards need to be in place. (15:20)
- A recent NASRC survey of 18,000 food retail locations on CO2 adoption indicated that adoption will grow by 300% over the next five years, with the majority of growth coming from the replacement of existing systems. (23:40)
Links
To access training resources on natural refrigerants, visit https://nasrc.org/
Learn more about Danfoss CO2 refrigeration solutions: https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/markets/food-and-beverage/dcs/co2-in-supermarkets/#tab-overview
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For more information and additional episodes of the EnVisioneering Exchange podcast, visit https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/about-danfoss/insights-for-tomorrow/envisioneering-exchange/