Ammonia at the ASHRAE Winter Conference

The ASHRAE Winter Conference will take place on January 29 to February 2, 2011 at the Hilton hotel in Las Vegas, USA. Reporting from there, ammonia21.com will feature the latest news from the world’s biggest HVAC exposition and the largest membership-based HVAC&R engineering society.

The conference will focus on a wide-range of programmes and papers addressing the real cost of zero-energy design, the efficient use of energy, the greening of the industrial base and other topics related to design, standards, codes and professional skills. The programme includes:

5 technical paper sessions
24 conference paper sessions and a poster session
57 non-paper seminars
8 open discussion forums

Ammonia-related presentations:

Eric M. Smith, International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration: “Ammonia - the Natural Refrigerant of the Past, Present and Future”. Recent investigations show that the use of ammonia and CO₂ systems become economically feasible, energy consumption can be minimized, while meeting demands for natural refrigerants.
Mark McLinden, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): “Property Data for Low-GWP Refrigerants: What Do We Know and What Don't We Know?” This presentation will review the most important thermo-physical data needed to evaluate a new refrigerant and survey the status of property data for ammonia, hydrocarbons and CO₂ refrigerant.
William Goetzler, Navigant Consulting: “Review of Regulations and Standards for the Use of refrigerants with GWP Values Less Than 20 In HVACR Applications”. A comprehensive review focusing on regulatory barriers and issues that may impact the use of CO₂, ammonia, hydrocarbons in the United States, European Union, and Japan.
Shitong Zha, Hill PHOENIX: “Applying Natural Refrigerants in Supermarket Refrigeration: Design Considerations and Evaluation”. The subject of the presentation is to discuss the driving forces of using ammonia, CO₂ and hydrocarbon refrigerant in supermarket refrigeration.

The technical program will be organised around the following conference tracks:

“Codes and Standards in the HVAC&R Industry”. Looking at manner in which codes and standards are created, adopted and enforced to how they are addressed in design documentation and construction; all aspects will be considered (chaired by Larry Sun).
“Integrated Design”, a special focus on optimum building performance and cost effectiveness (chaired by Julia Keen).
“Low Energy Design”, exploring strategies to achieve low energy buildings with preference to highlight hospitality facilities (chaired by Charlie Henck).
“Refrigeration Update”, addressing the latest developments in refrigeration. Topics might include advanced materials, charge reduction methods, system components, cycle configurations, and energy efficiency (chaired by Eckhard Groll).
“Industrial HVAC&R”, addressing the way we currently design for industrial systems and applications including, but not limited to, industrial facilities, mine and tunnel HVAC&R, etc., and how this has changed with rising energy costs (chaired by Dunstan Macauley).
“Net Zero Energy”, exploring the current approaches to net-zero energy, the true cost of net zero energy, ongoing maintenance concerns, and what this means for the future the built environment and the utility infrastructure (chaired by Rob Risley).
“HVAC Systems and Equipment”, covering programs that highlight HVAC systems and equipment with a special focus on “zero energy design” or topics related to reducing energy consumption sustainably (chaired by Keith Newcomer).
“Professional Skills” covering all aspects of business management and business ownership that do not involve the actual engineering of projects and systems (chaired by Ginger Scoggins).
“HVAC Fundamentals and Applications”, special consideration will be given to programs that align with the conference theme, “Zero Energy Design” or topics related to reducing energy consumption sustainably (chaired by William Dietrich).