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Environmental Profiles of Stirling-Cooled and Cascade-Cooled Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers

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Author Info

  • David M. Berchowitz

    () (Global Cooling Inc., 6000 Poston Rd. Athens 45701, OH, USA)

  • Yongrak Kwon

    () (Global Cooling Inc., 6000 Poston Rd. Athens 45701, OH, USA)

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    Abstract

    The environmental footprint of ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers as used in bio-repositories, universities and other research organizations is investigated. These freezers, employing the cascade refrigeration system, use between 10 and 20 times the energy of an average household refrigerator/freezer. In addition, they often require high greenhouse gas potential (GWP) refrigerants. A new technology employing the Stirling cycle machine promises to reduce energy consumption of ULT freezers by 50% or more. The cascade and Stirling systems are compared for equivalent sized freezers in terms of embodied energy and equivalent CO 2 production from cradle to gate and use, including total equivalent warming impact (TEWI) estimations. End-of-life issues are discussed but not quantified. It is shown that Stirling technology is able to significantly reduce the environmental impact of ULT freezers.

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    File URL: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/11/2838/pdf
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    File URL: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/11/2838/
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    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by MDPI, Open Access Journal in its journal Sustainability.

    Volume (Year): 4 (2012)
    Issue (Month): 11 (October)
    Pages: 2838-2851

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    Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:4:y:2012:i:11:p:2838-2851:d:20987

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    Web page: http://www.mdpi.com/

    Related research

    Keywords: Stirling; ULT; cascade; refrigeration; bio-repository; TEWI; embodied energy;

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