RT-Thermo Acoustic Refrigeration-Pulse Tube Engine
Praxair Receives Funding for Advanced Refrigeration Technology
Business Editors
DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12, 2002--Praxair, Inc.
(NYSE:PX) has received an Advanced Technology Program grant of $2
million from the U.S. Department of Commerce which will partially fund
the development of a new, unconventional refrigeration technology.
The project is expected to take three years. The system has been
demonstrated in the laboratory and now will be scaled up to industrial
dimensions.
Working with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Praxair will
design, build and test the first one-megawatt thermo-acoustic Stirling
heat engine. This engine will run one of the world's largest
pulse-tube refrigerators. The thermo-acoustic engine converts heat to
acoustic energy in the form of very large amplitude sound waves in
pressurized gas. The pulse-tube refrigerator uses the acoustic power
to generate refrigeration at very low temperatures. Since the system
has no moving parts, manufacturing and maintenance costs are
substantially lower and reliability and equipment life substantially
higher than conventional refrigeration systems.
While the technology can be applied to a wide range of
applications, it is initially expected to be used to economically
liquefy natural gas as fuel for heavy fleet vehicles. The conversion
of these vehicles to natural gas would reduce dependence on foreign
oil by millions of barrels per day and the U.S. balance of payments by
tens of billions of dollars per year. Use of liquefied natural gas
also would bring about a major reduction in air pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions.
"This grant will help us move forward in translating the complex
underlying physics of this technology to a large system and resolving
the many engineering challenges still ahead of us," said Dr. John J.
Wollan, Praxair's director of the project. "If successful, this
totally new type of refrigeration will be a significant breakthrough."
Praxair pioneered the first commercial application of cryogenic
refrigeration in North America 95 years ago, and refrigeration and
energy conversion remain core technologies for the company. To
strengthen its refrigeration-development program, Praxair in 2001
acquired the acoustic technology assets of Chart Industries, Inc.
which manufactures standard and custom-built industrial process
equipment primarily for low-temperature and cryogenic applications.
The Advanced Technology Program provides cost-shared funding to
industry for high-risk R&D projects with the potential to generate
broad-based economic benefits for the U.S. The program helps
accelerate projects that industry on its own could not fully fund
because of the technical risks involved.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology
Laboratory Office of Fuels and Energy Efficiency has co-funded both
the fundamental thermo-acoustic technology development led by the Los
Alamos National Laboratory as well as the prototype demonstration and
validation previously conducted by Chart Industries. Praxair will
continue to work with these agencies to commercialize thermo-acoustic
technology. Additional information on thermo-acoustic technology can
be found at www.lanl.gov/thermoacoustics.
Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South
America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2001 sales of $5.1
billion. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric and
process gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair
products, services and technology bring productivity and environmental
benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace,
chemicals, electronics, energy, food and beverage, healthcare,
manufacturing, metals and others. More information on Praxair is
available on the Internet at www.praxair.com.
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CONTACT: Praxair, Inc.
Media:
Susan Szita Gore, 203/837-2311
susan_szita-gore@praxair.com
or
Investors:
Elizabeth Hirsch, 203/837-2354
liz_hirsch@praxair.com |
