Refrigeration agents: The 20th Century and the Great Refrigeration Revolution

The priority of refrigerants in the determination of the ways of development of refrigeration in the coming decades — is discussed. Developing the postulates of the Kyoto Protocol the history of problems is considered — beginning from the empirical searches in the XIX century to the purposeful synthesis of refrigerants with pre-determined properties in the century XX. The starting point — synthesis of “Freon⁷' 12 in the year 1930. The consequences of this event for artificial refrigeration, and what is more important — for the human community — are analyzed. The end of illusions which has come in the year 1987, as stated in the paper, has been and up to the present time, remains the most complicated test for the system that has been formed during more than half a century period. Ecological problems in refrigeration have come to a new level, first of all, those associated with such concepts as “ozone holes”, “global warming”, “ozone depleting refrigerants”, “greenhousegases”, “total equivalent warming impact”, etc.

The second stage of the refrigeration revolution — the period between the Montreal (September, 1987) and Kyoto (December 1997) Protocols - has not become the final result, but the beginning of the third step. The innovations of the last years associated with the intensive development of refrigerating systems and heat pumps operating on hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, air, ammonia, water - may he considered as the sphere of the future, however of not very distant one, as can still be seemed, and certainly not unclouded future, however indicating that the refrigerating engineering is coming out to a new quality level. This conclusion has been illustrated by the examples of developments of refrigerating plants operating on ammonia, air, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide; their technical data and fields of applications are indicated.