Refrigerants

The macro-trend of sustainable, secure and competitive energy production and use, while at the same time combating climate change is leading to a shift in heating and cooling applications towards refrigerant circuits driven by electric compressors. New applications include cooling/air conditioning of buildings, replacement of heating resistors by heat pumps in electric vehicles, cooling in aircraft, air taxis, drones, helicopters, cooling of electronics in confined spaces in spacecraft, satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and general applications involving refrigerants with lower global warming potential (GWP).

Unlike screw compressors or other displacement compressors used in modern refrigerant circuits, turbo compressors can be operated with non-contact gas bearings and a direct-drive, high-speed motor. This has several advantages over displacement compressors for compressing refrigerants. In particular, the compressors are much smaller and lighter. In addition oil-free operation is enabled by using the refrigerant itself as a lubricant for the gas bearing. In refrigerant circuits, oil-free operation is preferred in order to prevent foaming of the refrigerant. In addition, no rotating (or movable) seals are required, noise and vibration emissions are much lower and the efficiency and thus the COP of the refrigerant circuit are very high.