At an international refrigeration conference, Trane presented an air-cooled demonstration chiller with next generation, low-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant DR-55.
This demonstration chiller is a Trane AquaTrine using DR-55, which is designed for apartments, office buildings, small restaurants, retail stores and hotels. It uses a high-efficiency hermetic scroll compressor and evaporator technology.
DR-55, marketed by The Chemours Company as Opteon XL55, is a next generation low-GWP refrigerant. An olefin-based blend, DR-55 is currently being evaluated by the HVAC industry for use in unitary and residential equipment.
Trane expects high performance HVAC systems to be available with next generation refrigerants like DR-55 within the next 12-18 months pending regulatory approval. The company does say some flammability will need to be accepted to use refrigerants with lower GWP, but refrigerants like DR-55 offer greater potential for safer implementation.
The University of California at Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center laboratory recently completed testing of DR-55 as a design-compatible alternative to R-410A in a Trane Precedent roof top heat pump.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently completed demonstration testing to assess the overall performance of DR-55 as a design-compatible alternative to R-410A in commercial unitary systems or roof top units.
Earlier this year, Trane announced its Sintesis air-cooled chillers as part of its EcoWise portfolio, using low GWP refrigerants - either R-134a or DuPont Opteon XP10 (R-513A).