Events and Exhibitions
ATMOSPHERE CPT:
NATURAL REFRIGERANTS ARE THE
WAY TO GO
By Ntsako Khosa*
Filling the Vineyard Hotel conference room were HVAC&R professionals ready to
change the industry and learn more about fully adopting natural refrigerants.
M
arket accelerator for climate-friendly heating, cooling &
refrigeration solutions, shecco, brought industry together in
Cape Town to promote the uptake of natural refrigerants in Cape
Town and its surrounding areas.
Various presentations and end-user panels looked at the
advantages of using and choosing natural refrigerants. Maurice
Some of the speakers at the conference.
The Vineyard Hotel hosted the shecco ATMOsphere conference to
a full crowd of HVAC&R professionals.
16
RACA Journal I May 2020
Robinson from Sphere Solutions presented on the past and
present of natural refrigerants in South Africa. Hannes Steyn
from GEA Africa shared ammonia refrigeration trends and
Grant Laidlaw from ACRA, unpacked hydrocarbon trends.
He mentioned that as the world moves to being greener and
encouraging the use of natural refrigerants, “The new curriculum
to Refrigeration and air conditioning embraces the move”.
This was as he touched on the skills shortage and some of the
challenges that the industry faces with filling the skills gap.
Natural refrigerants represent the only real choice for
the South African HVAC&R industry, according to Cold Link
Africa magazine Founder John Ackermann, who spoke at the
ATMOsphere Cape Town conference in Cape Town, South Africa,
on March 10.
Thomas Motmas from Cooling as a Service (CaaS) gave
a brief overview of what CaaS is all about stating, “CaaS is a
global financial instrument promoting the use of efficient air
conditioning and refrigeration solutions using low-GWP or
natural refrigerants”. The brief introduction comes after hosting a
matchmaking event the day before. The matchmaking event had
an overwhelming attendance drawing local providers, end users
and funders of HVAC&R technology to discuss the opportunities
and challenges of the business model. Many said that the
Incubator project could work in South Africa. The audience
identified that CaaS offers important opportunities for providers,
clients and investors alike.
The policy session presented by an all-female panel, Sally
Benson, professional officer air quality monitoring from the
Western Cape government; Margaret Molefe, Department of
Environmental Affairs (DEA) director: hazardous chemicals
management; and Ilana Koegelenberg, deputy manager market
development at shecco. The ladies shared updates and initiatives
from their respective fields and challenges that government and
industry need to overcome by working together to ensure proper
adoption and use of natural refrigerants. So far, 92 countries
have ratified the Kigali Amendment, Koegelenberg believes this
number will continue to rise.
www.hvacronline.co.za