The 9th annual ATMOsphere Europe conference took place in Lago di Garda, Italy on 19-21 November.
Over the three-day conference, key stakeholders of natural refrigerant-based technologies attended 17 sessions and saw 70 presentations, and networked with peers during the several networking breaks and receptions.
"Next to the impressive development in the market for commercial and industrial refrigeration, ATMOsphere Europe 2018 served to demonstrate that technology with natural refrigerants is available already today for heating and air-conditioning applications. Now it’s a matter of how to tackle barriers to bring it to the market as soon as possible”, shecco’s COO, Alvaro de Oña, stated after the conference.
The event opened to a strong start with an end user interview where the French real estate giant Gecina spoke about implementing natural refrigerants in HVAC applications of commercial buildings. “HFOs are not a preference, not at all,” said Laurent Bataille, technical director of Gecina. He said that the company plans to convert HVAC in 50% of its buildings to natural refrigerants over the next 10–15 years starting next year.
“The EU F-Gas Regulation has been a major driver for our industry. Europe has been leading the way but think about the others who are behind - I think the transition to natural refrigerants for HVAC will be fast,” added Marc Chasserot, CEO of shecco.
The conference covered different aspects of the business case for natural refrigerants, such as policy, training, end user perspectives and latest technology trends in commercial, industrial, HVAC and mobile air-conditioning (MAC) sectors. Next to the traditional technology on display on the exhibitors’ area, a Mercedes S Class Coupé equipped with CO2 air-conditioning system was on display during the event at the entrance of the facilities.
The highly anticipated technology trends session with the industry’s leading experts Armin Hafner, Andy Pearson and René van Gerwen giving the audience an in-depth look at the latest trends in regards to CO2, ammonia and hydrocarbon-based technologies respectively was one of the highlights of the conference.
Another highlight of the conference was the Accelerate Europe 2018 Awards ceremony where METRO AG, Unilever, E.ON Sweden, GEA and Sergio Girotto received their awards for advancing natural refrigerant adoption.
“METRO, Unilever and E.ON Sweden are all worthy winners in extremely competitive awards categories, while GEA should be proud that the BluQ has been selected by the public as our Innovation of the Year from a field of very worthy candidates,” said Marc Chasserot, congratulating the winners.
“Sergio Girotto is well-respected in the HVAC&R sector for his pioneering role in developing CO2 transcritical systems for supermarkets and for his long history of innovating with this natural refrigerant,” added Andrew Williams, editor of Accelerate Europe. www.shecco.com
All the presentations from the conference are available online and on the conference app. Click here to see the event photos. Full media coverage of ATMOsphere Europe 2018, including articles, videos and social media coverage, is also available here.
ATMO Europe 2018, organised by shecco, was the European edition of the global ATMOsphere Conference series and was supported by 55 sponsors and partners.
Click here to see the upcoming ATMOsphere global events will be taking place in 2019.
