USA – The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) announced yesterday, as part of the White House Industry Leader Roundtable, that it was set to provide a progress report on its 2014 pledge to invest $5 billion in HVACR research over the next 10 years.

The AHRI President and CEO, Stephen Yurek, informed the assembled dignitaries and industry leaders that the HVACR industry spent more than $255 million in 2015 toward a 10-year, $5 billion commitment in research and development and capital expenditures with the aim of developong and commercialising low-global warming potential (GWP) technologies. Mr Yurek pointed out that this $5 billion pledge has been made on top of the nearly $2 billion that had already been spent on such research over the previous five years. The yearly totals are expected to continue growing as spending moves from the research phase into the potentially more expensive development phase, including the testing of equipment using the new refrigerants.

“Our industry’s refrigerant research and equipment development program has made great strides, even since last year’s White House event,” declared Yurek, noting that AHRI is currently in the midst of wrapping up the second phase of a major, four-year research project to identify the next generation of refrigerants. “We are now in a position to do two things: one, begin to develop equipment that will use the new refrigerants in specific applications and, two, to begin to focus on another class of promising new refrigerants that are slightly flammable. So, today, AHRI is committing to provide up to $1 million for a collaborative, tightly focused research effort into how to safely use these refrigerants, and we are actively seeking additional sponsors to help fund this important research.”