Gustav Lorentzen

Revival of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant

In the present situation it seems appropriate to avoid as far as possible the use in large quantities of substances that are foreign to nature and will unavoidably be lost into the biosphere. A much safer philosophy must be to revert to ‘natural’ refrigerants: substances that are already present in our environment and which are known to be harmless. One such possibility is carbon dioxide (CO2), which comes very close to being the ideal working medium, provided that a process to give competitive energy performance can be designed. The paper presents some examples of how this can be done.

Accidents and critical situations due to unintentional escape of refrigerants: a survey of cases in Norway over the last two decades

Abstract Safety is an overriding consideration in the design and operation of refrigeration systems. Present practices and regulations must be judged against the experience of the recent past. Regrettably, there are very few systematic records available concerning the frequency and nature of accidents caused by escape of refrigerants, and the discussion is often based on hearsay, preconceived ideas and prejudice. As a contribution to clarify the situation this paper attempts to give a reasonably complete survey of refrigeration accidents and near-accidents in one country. It is highly desirable that similar investigations can be carried out in other countries, in order to provide a more complete basis for objective decisions.