Chinese refrigerators for the environment

2000/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingurumena

The use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that damage ozone is currently causing numerous environmental problems in the refrigeration industry. Although there are refrigerators that do not use this compound, they are inefficient and therefore are excessively expensive.

The Chinese Republic is the largest producer in the world and therefore a country very concerned about these problems. For this reason, last December the Chinese government signed a project with the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory to boost and improve the performance of refrigerators that do not use CFCs. This project aims to prevent the emission of 100 million tons of carbon dioxide in the next 15 years. Project leaders estimate that 20 million refrigerators will be sold that do not use total CFCs.

The refrigerator market in China has soared in recent years. 15 years ago only 7% of cities used the fridge and in 1998 it was already 21%. The main objective of the project is to promote in the market refrigerators without CFCs. This will improve its efficiency and use marketing techniques.