Low GWP Refrigerants for Air Conditioning Applications

Refrigerants with low environmental impact have been developed as replacements for R22 and R410A in air conditioning applications. L-20 and L-41 have been evaluated in representative residential equipment. This study discusses the performance at high ambient temperatures (warm climate) and potential design changes. In addition, 1233zd and 1234ze have been evaluated as replacements for R123 and R134a in low and medium pressure chiller applications. Theoretical and experimental results are discussed in detail showing the benefits of using these new fluids

Refrigerants with Low Environmental Impact for Refrigeration Applications

New refrigerants with considerable low environmental impact are currently under evaluation by the refrigeration industry. Such refrigerants could be used in place of high global warming fluids like R404A. Among these new fluids are 1234ze, N-13, L-40 and N-40. Initial laboratory evaluations of these refrigerants showed good energy efficiency due to their good thermal properties. These initial evaluations were followed by larger scale (field) trials, refrigerant–oil property measurements, and also material compatibility. This study presents and discusses results of such evaluations, and extends the assessment to LCCP using different refrigeration technologies and refrigerants

Invasive mammal eradication on islands results in substantial conservation gains

More than US$21 billion is spent annually on biodiversity conservation. Despite their importance for preventing or slowing extinctions and preserving biodiversity, conservation interventions are rarely assessed systematically for their global impact. Islands house a disproportionately higher amount of biodiversity compared with mainlands, much of which is highly threatened with extinction. Indeed, island species make up nearly two-thirds of recent extinctions. Islands therefore are critical targets of conservation. We used an extensive literature and database review paired with expert interviews to estimate the global benefits of an increasingly used conservation action to stem biodiversity loss: eradication of invasive mammals on islands. We found 236 native terrestrial insular faunal species (596 populations) that benefitted through positive demographic and/or distributional responses from 251 eradications of invasive mammals on 181 islands. Seven native species (eight populations) were negatively impacted by invasive mammal eradication. Four threatened species had their International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List extinction-risk categories reduced as a direct result of invasive mammal eradication, and no species moved to a higher extinction-risk category. We predict that 107 highly threatened birds, mammals, and reptiles on the IUCN Red List—6% of all these highly threatened species—likely have benefitted from invasive mammal eradications on islands. Because monitoring of eradication outcomes is sporadic and limited, the impacts of global eradications are likely greater than we report here. Our results highlight the importance of invasive mammal eradication on islands for protecting the world's most imperiled fauna.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences and can be found at: http://www.pnas.org/Keywords: island, restoration, invasive species, conservation, eradicationKeywords: island, restoration, invasive species, conservation, eradicatio

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Latest Developments of Low Global Warming Refrigerants for Chillers

This paper will focus on the developments of new molecules that have low global warming potential, high thermal performance, and favorable safety characteristics, to name only a few required characteristics. Several new molecules that have very short atmospheric lifetimes, as well as refrigerant blends utilizing these molecules, have been developed and will be evaluated for use in various types of water chillers ranging from smaller capacity systems that currently use R-410A or R-407C refrigerants to larger centrifugal compressor chillers that have currently used R-134a or R-123. Thermodynamic and system simulations were carried out using low GWP refrigerant properties and compared against the baseline refrigerants. These new LGWP refrigerants show promise in these applications and warrants further development

Low Global Warming Refrigerants For Commercial Refrigeration Systems

New refrigerants with the positive attributes of both high thermal performance and low environmental impact are currently in development. Initial evaluation of these refrigerants in refrigeration systems show good energy efficiency and significant lower global warming impact than current refrigerants. Some of those Low GWP refrigerants are non-azeotropic blends with moderate to high glide; therefore guidance on the use of these blends is needed to achieve the desired good performance and low environmental impact. This study discusses glide effects on the performance and operation of refrigeration systems. Issues related to servicing systems such as fractionation are also discussed. Data is presented using current refrigerants such as R407F and other refrigerant blends currently under development