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Technology Stocks : ATCO -- Breakthrough in Sound Reproduction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: riposte who wrote (1140)	6/12/2002 10:31:08 AM
From: Savant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2062

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. --30--ah/ny* 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