VISITVISIT USUS ONON THETHE WEB!WEB! FindFind more more inspiring spotlights stories at at greenhvacrmag.comgreenhvacrmag.com Up Close Behind the Scenes with the Industry’s Leading Innovators The best replacement for R-22 is reclai m ed R-22, according to the experts at Hudson Technologies Co m p any. over Antarctica) and allowing harmful ultra- U.S. and most other developed countries in Rogers Supply Company in Illinois. She The process Zugibe developed a quar- violet radiation to reach humans and other 2020. So where does that leave owners of shares that the per-pound prices have ranged ter-century ago is fundamentally the same life back on the ground. legacy coolers, those designed to run with the from $5.50 in 2015 to $11 in 2016–2017, as what’s used today, and it’s still the fast- The phasing out of CFCs is widely cred- greatest energy efficiency on R-22? then back down to $7 in 2018. “Some people est, most efficient reclamation equipment ited as an effective global effort to repair the The economic and environmental equation worry that R-22 will run out in the future. in the world, able to reclaim every type of ozone hole. In place of CFCs came other is not lost on Hudson. The company’s tech- But we tell them if their equipment is in good refrigerant on the market. And with mil- technologies (HCFCs and HFCs), and in nologies and services—as delivered through shape to stick with the reclaimed product.” lions poured into further research and de- particular HCFC-22, otherwise referred to wholesalers and HVAC contractors—enable People like Lampton are on the front lines velopment, Hudson Technologies can also as R-22. reclamation of existing R-22 refrigerants. of this information battle about refrigerants. certify that reclaimed gases meet standards “The best replacement for R-22 is re- She distributes newsletters and posters to set by the AHRI. Hudson also provides en- A Faster, More Efficient Way to claimed R-22,” says Chuck Harkins, vice contractors and dealers to educate them on ergy consulting and design services across the Reclaim Refrigerants president of sales and marketing at Hudson. such things as regulatory requirements, pro- globe, offering such things as web-based fault Zugibe, who describes himself an entrepre- “Systems designed for R-22 operate most ef- hibitions on venting, and the rules for refrig- detection, diagnostics, and optimization for neur-engineer, devised a system for extract- ficiently on R-22, and since reclaimed R-22 erator disposal. One such poster reminded chilled water plants. ing, cleaning, and reclaiming used refriger- meets or exceeds the same purity standard, technicians that compliance with EPA rules This private-public collaboration is hardly ants in anticipation of the 1992 legislation. it is the best alternative.” on refrigerant reclamation reduces the annu- unusual, and it speaks to the interconnected- f business schools are teaching The equipment of that time, which distilled al metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent ness of many players in the refrigerants-en- about environmental econom- gases as a means to remove impurities, was Supply-Demand Dynamics (MTCO2e) by 7.3 million, about what is vironment-economics equation. For Zugibe, ics, they should study the case slow and required a lot of energy. Owners of coolers that run on R-22 may or produced by 1.5 million cars. the entrepreneur-engineer, that’s consistent histories of coolers, chillers, “I wanted a much faster, energy-efficient, may not be motivated by the environmen- with his mission. I Alignment Equals Fewer GHGs I and other refrigeration tech- single-plate distillation mechanism,” he tal imperative to cease using it. But supply “Our business has always been built on nologies. And not just the equipment that says. So he built one himself, which today limits have effectively raised prices, provid- The reclamation process can be operation- the environmental cause,” he says. “If people sits on building roofs or next to food storage is still the fastest, most efficient reclamation ing economic incentives in a value chain of ally efficient to perform even onsite at large continue to use R-22 without venting it, we facilities. A central part of the equation is machine in the world. customers, HVAC con- buildings or facilities. It’s analogous to kid- can achieve a zero global warming goal and refrigerant gases. That same machine tractors, and Hudson ney dialysis in that the building chillers can buildings can keep using their equipment Few know this better than one of the lead- (affectionately referred Technologies to cap- continue operating while the refrigerant is running at their optimal efficiency. Why ing companies in the refrigerants business— to in the industry as The Scope ture, clean, and resell diverted to the Zugibeast® cleaning process. make new molecules when you can reclaim Hudson Technologies, based in Pearl River, “the Zugibeast®”) is es- the refrigerant. “We can clean very fast on-site,” Zugibe says. what’s already in use?” New York, with operating facilities through- sentially how the com- Another curveball REFRIGERANTS: out the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company’s pany cleans refrigerant to the refrigerant eco- founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board gases today. nomic landscape came Kevin Zugibe, has been addressing environ- As those newer re- in 2013 when the EPA mental concerns with refrigerants since the frigerant technologies surprisingly allowed Hudson can THE ECONOMICS late 1980s, when the words “ozone hole” first evolved, Hudson rec- 7.3Compliance M with an increase in R-22 reclaim entered the public discourse. lamation services were production, effective- every EPA rules on refrigerant “The amendment to the Clean Air Act on capable of recovery, ly lowering the price, type of reclamation reduces refrigerant OF RECLAMATION ozone meant there would be no more vent- reclamation, and reuse which reduced reclama- on the ing of CFCs after 1992,” says Zugibe, who of all, including R-22. the annual metric tons tion and likely increased market. The succession of gases implicated in ozone was a professional mechanical engineer with But this is where the of carbon dioxide venting. “A glut in the hole depletion and global warming has been experience designing and installing air con- environmental eco- equivalent (MTCO2e) market that was already dizzying. But reclamation by way of Hudson ditioning systems prior to then. That venting nomics class on refrig- by 7.3 million. oversupplied with vir- Technologies prevents harm by incentivizing was of the most common refrigerant of the eration technologies gin R-22 eliminated contractors to quit venting. time, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); after a takes a twist. R-22 is the economic incentive period of service most refrigerant gases were capable of some degree for proper refrigerant simply disposed of into the atmosphere. of ozone depletion and, to a greater degree, management and reclamation,” Harkins says. By Russ Klettke Relatively harmless to life on the ground, it’s a global-warming greenhouse gas. Air That oversupply has since settled out, but the chlorine in the organic compound rose conditioning units manufactured prior to it’s common for end-users to be confused by a dozen or more miles into the stratosphere, 2010 run with optimal efficiency on R-22. the changes in technologies and EPA regu- where it interacted with the ozone layer of So R-22 is being phased out, per the EPA. lations. “Price fluctuations have been wild,” the earth’s atmosphere, destroying it (largely COURTESYPHOTO: OF HUDSON TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY COURTESYPHOTOS: OF HUDSON TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY Production and importation will cease in the says Leah Lampton, marketing manager for 18 JUNE/JULY 2018 greenhvacrmag.com green HVACR JUNE/JULY 2018 19.