Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps: Energy and Environmental Issues

Refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP) have an important impact on the final energy uses of many sectors of modern society, such as residential, commercial, industrial, transport, and automotive. Moreover, RACHP also have an important environmental impact due to the working fluids that deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, which are being phased out according to the Montreal Protocol (1989). Last, but not least, high global working potential (GWP), working fluids (directly), and energy consumption (indirectly) are responsible for a non-negligible quota of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, thus impacting climate change.