In early May, seven visitors from Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd, in South Korea visited UNMC’s Central Utility plant to see its 3,750 ton Trane chiller, which uses an environmentally friendly refrigerant.
Samsung has multiple chillers in South Korea, but are in discussions to change the type of refrigerant they use to a new lower global warming potential refrigerant. They traveled to the United States to visit the Trane facility and to see UNMC’s chiller, which already operates with this new refrigerant.
The chiller — installed in December 2016 — uses a more environmentally friendly refrigerant that does not deplete the ozone if released into the atmosphere (as traditional CFC refrigerants do) and has the best toxicity rating possible. While most refrigerants have a global warming potential of about 1300, UNMC’s refrigerant’s global warming potential value is just 1.
At the time of installation, only 12 chillers in the world used this refrigerant — and UNMC was the first in the United States.
In addition to the Samsung delegation, the visiting group also included a Trane chiller representative from South Korea, two Trane factory representatives from Lacrosse, Wisc., and a local Trane chiller representative.