Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub

ERC Overview

EARTH is founded on four ERC pillars: convergent research, diversity and culture of inclusion, engineering workforce development, and innovation ecosystem, which will impact the engineering and scientific communities, the HVACR industry, and society.

The Challenge

Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) are essential to the quality of life for all humans. HVACR systems are widespread throughout society, enabling transportation and preservation of fresh foods, storage of medicines, and cooling of buildings. However, most refrigerants used today are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have high global-warming potential (GWP), with 2000-4000 times the impact of CO2. Combined with high leak rates (direct effect — 50-90% of refrigerants leak into the atmosphere) and high energy consumption (indirect effect — 20-40% of U.S. residential and commercial building electricity usage comes from HVACR), HFCs account for 7.8% of total greenhouse-gas emissions. In response, the U.S. and 170 other countries are phasing down HFCs in accordance with the Kigali agreement, F-gas regulations, and American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, creating a tremendous societal challenge to responsibly and sustainably replace billions of kilograms of refrigerants.

To address this challenge, a multi-institution, multi-disciplinary team put together a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC): Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH), to create a “sustainable refrigerant lifecycle” to address technical, environmental, and societal challenges facing the HVACR industry.

Our Vision

EARTH will create sustainable, accessible, and equitable refrigeration and air conditioning innovations that improve the quality of life for all, address current and future environmental challenges, build a culture of inclusion, and secure U.S. leadership in workforce development and manufacturing.

Thrusts

Lower Emissions

Develop “transformative refrigerants” that have a balance of properties such as environmental, toxicity, flammability, stability, energy efficiency, system complexity, price, recyclability, and long-term availability.

Reduce GWP

Promote the recycling of refrigerants (e.g. billions of kilograms are in use today) so that blend components can be recovered as pure compounds and reused in new more environmentally friendly formulations or repurposed into new materials that are environmentally safe and uniquely functional.

Higher Energy Efficiency

Develop next-generation cooling technologies with higher energy efficiency than current vapor-compression technologies using high fidelity experiments, advanced atomistic simulations, data science methods, and rigorous process design.

Our Mission

EARTH will serve as the national refrigerant research center that will enable the refrigeration and air conditioning industry, federal government, policymakers, and professional and environmental organizations to (1) innovate future system technologies to utilize highly efficient and safe refrigerants with low environmental impact; (2) develop and implement new practices for effectively reclaiming, separating, and recycling refrigerants; (3) invent novel processes for converting legacy refrigerants into future products; and (4) support the education and training of a diverse workforce.

Our Policy and Impact

Current refrigerants (Hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs) will be phased out according to the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act passed by Congress and signed by the president in Dec, 2020 due to high global warming potential (GWP)
Montreal Protocol, Kigali agreement and European F-gas regulations requiring similar phaseout of HFCs in 170 countries
Phase out of HFCs over next two decades is estimated to create 150,000 new jobs, increase manufacturing by $39 Billion in the U.S., and reduce global temperature rising by 0.5 ºC
Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (RAC) accounts for 20% of U.S. energy consumption
RAC industry is strategic to U.S. national interests – maintain export market

EARTH News

A group of men in suits standing in front of a projector screen with college logos on it

From Microsoft to Walmart, new KU research center on refrigerants is attracting strong interest from businesses

If you could have just one statistic to understand how good it is to be in the air-conditioning industry, it might be this one: About 3 billion people live in the hottest regions of the world, but currently only about 8% of them have air conditioning. As new middle-class economies emerge in places like China, India, Africa and elsewhere, the industry estimates it will need to produce the equivalent of five air conditioners every second for the next 25 years to keep up with demand.

Chancellor Girod visits with Mark Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering

Chancellor Girod visits with Mark Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, to discuss his work to develop sustainable refrigerant technologies and practices that will improve quality of life and combat climate change.

University of Kansas awarded $26 million for new Engineering Research Center from National Science Foundation

KU is the lead institution for a new National Science Foundation Gen-4 Engineering Research Center — Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) — that will focus on developing sustainable refrigerants to address climate change. EARTH is led by Foundation Distinguished Professor Mark Shiflett in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering at the KU School of Engineering.

View all news