Kobe Steel, Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power and The Kansai Electric Power have completed a prototype of the world’s first water vapor chiller. The chiller incorporates an axial compressor that uses water as the refrigerant, and can be applied to various applications such as air conditioning and cooling processes at buildings and factories. Against a background of global warming, recently developed air conditioning chillers and refrigerators often use refrigerants such as HFC, which is more environmentally friendly than other fluorocarbons, and natural refrigerants like CO2, ammonium and isobutane.
Unlike these systems, the new prototype employs water, natural refrigerant, whose ozone depletion potential is zero and which is non-toxic and non-flammable. Using water as a refrigerant solves the issues of ozone depletion, global warming, flammability, and toxicity. Water is also used as the bearing lubricant in the compressor