Chillventa Nürnberg 2008. Registrations top 20,000 m² mark

Chillventa continues its success story. Climate change puts refrigerants in the headlines. New solutions at Chillventa Chillventa Nürnberg 2008 continues its success story with figures that speak for themselves: 283 companies from 29 countries, including most of the market leaders from virtually all the key product segments, have already registered for a display area of 20,015 m2 (as at 26.6.2007).

“We are delighted to have topped the 20,000 m2 mark almost exactly 16 months before Chillventa Nürnberg 2008,” says Gabriele Hannwacker, Exhibition Director of Chillventa at NürnbergMesse. “The registrations received from well-known companies like Solvay Fluor, Thermokey, Refcomp and others in the past days have enabled us to reach two thirds of our planned net display area of around 30,000 m2.” The latest list of exhibitors can be seen at www.chillventa.de.

The worldwide refrigeration and air conditioning industry is undergoing radical changes. The major cause of this is the climate change and its consequences – an issue that the experts are not only frequently discussing now, but will certainly also do in the autumn of 2008 at Chillventa Nürnberg, the International Trade Fair for Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Heat Pumps. The refrigerants, which decisively affect the development of new products, play a key role in this connection in addition to energy efficiency.

This is shown by international agreements like the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols, which deal with protection of the ozone layer on the one hand and the greenhouse effect on the other. Their great topicality is reflected in the latest developments in countries such as China and India, where the air conditioning markets are growing at explosive rates. The majority of the equipment used there is still filled with R-22, a gas that depletes the ozone layer. In China’s cities alone, 87.2 of every 100 homes now have an air conditioner compared with only 24.4 seven years ago. Rapid action and the use of new products and technologies is called for, especially as the most recent research findings show that the hole in the ozone layer is becoming larger again and is well on the way to reaching its record size of 2001. (Source: www.ashrae.org)

R-22 is also an important issue in Europe, as EU Regulation 2037/2000 prohibits the use of this refrigerant in new applications from 2010 onwards. There are nevertheless still thousands of tons of this in use in existing plants. Current attention is, however, focused on EU Regulation 842/2006, also known as the F-Gas Regulation, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This also concerns the HFC refrigerants (R-404A, R-507, R-134a, R-410A, etc.). Although the regulation concentrates on the leakproofness of plants and on training, the industry has long been testing new alternative solutions in case HFCs should be banned at some stage. The undisputed leader here is CO2, although this refrigerant is in no way suitable for all HFC applications.

Nevertheless, component manufacturers are currently outdoing each other with new products tailored to the high pressures of this refrigerant. On the other hand, manufacturers like DuPont or Honeywell are already talking about the next generation of synthetic refrigerants with a GWP value below 150, which are mainly presented as solutions for the car segment at the moment.

Chillventa: Platform for new technologies
All this offers sufficient thought for discussions among industry experts at Chillventa Nürnberg, which takes place in Nürnberg for the first time from 15-17 October 2008. NürnbergMesse as organizer of the exhibition and the many sponsors want Chillventa to offer an international platform for the presentation of the latest technologies and trends in the industry. This also applies to the extensive supporting programme, which will play an important role especially in view of current legislation on refrigerants and the search for alternative solutions. The planned programme includes events such as the established symposium organized by the Association of European Refrigeration Compressor and Controls Manufacturers (ASERCOM) in cooperation with the European Partnership for Energy and Environment (EPEE), or the presentation on Absorption Refrigeration and Solar Cooling by the Institute for Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology (ILK Dresden).