SightGlass

Scientists have developed a window coating to regulate heating and cooling, which could one day improve energy efficiency in vehicle HVAC systems. A global team of scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore claim that the coating is self adaptive, and that this would reduce energy use by cooling in the summer and heating in … Continue reading Thermal glass could improve HVAC energy efficiency

Up next: Heated seatbelts

Tier 1 automotive components supplier ZF has developed a heated seatbelt for electric vehicles designed to reduce the energy used to heat the vehicle and improve safety by dissuading occupants from wearing bulky warm clothing that can hamper the effectiveness of restraint systems. Especially effective in combination with seat heaters, the warm embrace of ZF’s … Continue reading Up next: Heated seatbelts

Incorporated in Australia in 2003, Sprintex Ltd is primarily a clean air compressor engineering, research, product development and manufacturing company.  Its products are used to supercharge combustion engines, clean industrial air, treat wastewater, and most recently to supply hydrogen fuel cells with a constant flow of oxygen-rich air. Sprintex has received its first production order … Continue reading Aussie supercharger-maker Sprintex gets into HVAC compressors, fuel cell tech

Now that Congress has passed the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has authority to force a production phase down of non-refillable refrigerant cylinders by 2025. The EPA has decided that the single-use canisters can contribute to HFCs leaking into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.  Continue reading US EPA now authorised to ban disposable refrigerant cylinders, shot cans

A new approach to refrigeration known as ionocaloric cooling takes advantage of how heat is stored when a material changes from a solid to a liquid and could spell the end of refrigerants as we know them. When a material melts it absorbs heat from its surroundings, when it solidifies it releases heat.  In the … Continue reading Ionocaloric cooling: The end of refrigerants?

A UK-based company that has been developing a revolutionary type of refrigeration has secured a £1.3 million ($AU2.4m) investment, with the purpose of bringing to market a new technology which does away with refrigerant gas. Barocal Ltd, a spin-out from Cambridge University’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, is developing a cooling and heating method … Continue reading Disruptive solid-state refrigerant tech firm secures £1.3m investment

Koura is about to produce a lower global warming potential (GWP) automotive refrigerant alternative to R134a as countries like Australia drag the chain on banning imports of equipment charged with high-GWP HFCs despite having ratified a phase-down schedule under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Koura’s R456a (branded Klea 456a) is an alternative to … Continue reading R456a joins R513a as possible A1-rated drop-in for automotive R134a systems

Thermo King has made R452A standard on single- and multi-temperature truck refrigeration units manufactured in North America from January 2023.  R452A has been used in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by Thermo King for several years as well as on selected products in Asia Pacific and North America, where the refrigerant’s temperature control performance … Continue reading Thermo King the first in North America to make reefers with R452a as standard

Daikin, the only company globally to manufacture both air-conditioning systems and refrigerants, has developed a low-GWP refrigerant designed for electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with heat pumps. R474A (D1V-140) has been developed as an alternative to R1234yf for improved heat pump performance in EVs, particularly in colder climates, where they can lose up to 20 per … Continue reading Daikin R474a (A2L) approved for EV heat pumps

Some car-makers are banking on combining plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell technologies to create plug-in fuel cell electric vehicles (PFCEVs) as a way to partially meet their carbon neutrality goals. Why the shift towards PFCEVs? Put simply, they address the elephant in the room of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure – specifically the lack of it.  … Continue reading Hydrogen hybrids: Best of both worlds or flash in the pan?