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| Frankfurt’s town hall provides eco-friendly air conditioning  Frankfurt's city council is leading the way in environmental protection: by converting the air-conditioning system installed at its town hall (referred to as the 'Römer') to the non-ozone-depleting refrigerant DuPont ISCEON MO29, it has become a leader in the withdrawal from service of R-22 refrigerants, which contribute to ozone layer depletion. The conversion (or 'retrofit') of the water chiller system took place without a hitch back in September 2007, as part of routine maintenance procedures. Technicians from the air-conditioning system supplier Trane Deutschland GmbH, of Duisburg/Germany, replaced a total of 45 kg of chlorous R-22 refrigerant with ISCEON MO29.Frankfurt's city council had responded early to new regulations, due to come into force as of 1 January 2010, which will ban the refilling of existing refrigeration systems, for service purposes, with virgin R-22. Accordingly, as of 31 December 2009 – at the latest – the sale of this widely-used refrigerant will be suspended by producers and stockists. Thereafter, either recycled R-22 must be used, or the conversion to an alternative refrigerant carried out. There are also problems with current reserves of prepared R-22, which are not expected to be sufficient to meet projected demand after 2010. The 'Römer' in Frankfurt has been used as the city's town hall for over 600 years and forms one of the best-known row of buildings in Germany. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |