The ATMOsphere Podcast Network

Three start-up companies that have developed alternative cooling and heating technologies that don’t use standard vapor compression are seeking to partner with manufacturers of natural refrigerant-based systems to bring their products to the marketplace. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

Lithuania-based manufacturer Refra has delivered a 2.4MW (682TR) CO2 (R744) refrigeration system for an entire cold-storage facility in London operated by a foodservice wholesaler. The 44,129m2 (475,001ft2) facility “is designed to become a showcase of efficiency, capacity and service in the U.K.,” wrote Refra. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

In a retrofit application, M&M Carnot , a subsidiary of Johnson Controls, supplied CO2 (R744) chillers to cool approximately 1.3MW (370TR) of IT heat load at Evocative’s Santa Clara, California, edge colocation data cente Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

In addition to what we published this week, these stories caught our eye. Systemair Announces Air-Handling Unit with Integrated Propane Heat Pump Panasonic Launches New Residential CO2 Hot Water Heat Pumps in Australia Danfoss to Donate 100 Refrigeration Training Benches to Schools Worldwide Copeland Releases Global Impact Report Highlighting Importance of Natural Refrigerants Enex Technologies Se...

The articles in the podcast are as follows: ⁠ATMO America: Buc-ee’s Opens Its First Travel Center with CO2 Refrigeration in Ohio⁠ ⁠ATMO America: UL Working Group Aims to Update Propane Charge Limits for HVAC by 2028⁠ ⁠Magnotherm Announces Stellar, a 125kW Refrigerant-Free Magnetic Cooling System for Data Centers, HVAC and Industry⁠ ⁠SCM Frigo Starts Up 2.8MW Transcritical CO2 Refrigeration System...

Italian manufacturer SCM Frigo has started up a 2.8MW (796TR) transcritical CO2 (R744) refrigeration system featuring heat reclaim for a French facility in the beauty and cosmetics industry. The project was initially announced at the 2025 IRN conference in Rottenburg am Neckar, Germany, last June Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

To highlight the theme of this year’s World Refrigeration Day, the Secretariat behind the commemoration has established a “2026 Cool Intelligence Showcase” featuring photos sent in by refrigeration stakeholders from around the world along with their comments about the meaning of cool intelligence and how they use it. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

A UL working group focused on updating charge standards for flammable (A3) refrigerants like propane (R290) in HVAC applications such as outdoor monobloc heat pumps is aiming to finish revised text in 2027 that will be incorporated in the 2028 (fifth) edition of the UL/CSA 60335-2-40 safety standard for electrical heat pumps, air-conditioners, and dehumidifiers used in the U.S., Canada and Mexico....

The use of transcritical CO2 (R744) refrigeration in commercial and industrial applications continues to rise in both Australia and New Zealand, according to ATMOsphere’s report “ Refrigeration: Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration with Natural Refrigerants .” Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

U.S. manufacturer Zero Zone is supplying a 91TR (320kW) transcritical CO2 (R744) refrigeration system for a new grocery fulfillment center in Nashville, Tennessee, according to Director of Industrial Sales John Collins. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

Magnotherm has announced Stellar , a new refrigerant-free magnetic cooling system with a max capacity of 125kW (35.5TR) designed for both commercial refrigeration and commercial HVAC. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

ATMOsphere, publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com , has launched a new website showcasing the 2026 ATMO Approved Label Companies. The site features individual profiles for all of the companies approved for the 2026 version of the label. Each profile contains an “impact report” that details how the company’s products or work – contractors are also eligible for the label – have contributed to a reduc...

Commercial refrigeration manufacturer Epta is focused on providing integrated sustainable solutions, with its EptaTechnica brand offering modular CO2 (R744) systems, new Zenith cabinets compatible with CO2 or propane (R290) and Servitization equipment management. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

On April 6 Texas-based Buc-ee’s opened its first travel center featuring CO2 (R744) refrigeration in Huber Heights, Ohio, according to Scott Ray, the company’s Director of Design, Construction and Procurement. ⁠Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com⁠

In addition to the industry’s general growth, its acceptance of higher water temperatures and simultaneous concerns around excessive water use have stoked demand for Jaeggi’s hybrid dry cooler. Jeffrey Hargreaves, Business Development Director for Data Centers at Jaeggi, has been in the data center industry for more than a decade, and, since he started, acceptable water temperatures for cooling ha...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)’s Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) has concluded that trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), formed in the atmosphere by the breakdown of certain f-gases, should be classified and labelled as toxic to reproduction. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

In addition to what we published this week, these stories caught our eye. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

A major American tech company is decarbonizing hydronic space heating and domestic hot water production in its San Francisco Bay Area buildings by replacing legacy gas boilers with water-to-water CO2 (R744) heat pumps manufactured by Flow Environmental Systems. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

After receiving industry input, the U.K.’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has announced that it will delay implementing changes to the country’s HFC phasedown schedule. The proposed changes, which were open for public comment from November 5 to December 17, 2025, were intended to address shortcomings in the U.K.’s HFC phase-out commitments.  Read the full story on Natur...

Elemental Impact, a nonprofit that invests in climate tech, has launched the Data Center Innovation Initiative (DCII), with up to $5 million (€4.3 million) in funding available to companies developing “novel industrial cooling solutions to reduce energy and water use.” Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

ALDI achieved the highest score among 16 U.S. food retailers in the Environmental Investigation Agency’s (EIA) 2026 Climate-Friendly Supermarkets Scorecard, which evaluates the progress supermarkets are making in phasing out HFCs from their refrigeration systems.  Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

Jaeggi is a Swiss manufacturer of dry coolers and gas condensers, founded in 1929 in Berne. The company began producing finned heat exchangers for refrigeration systems in 1934 and later developed hybrid dry cooling technology, introducing its HTK hybrid dry cooler in 1988 and patenting the innovation in 1992. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

A diverse panel of HVAC experts, who are helping to chart a path for natural refrigerants like CO2 (R744) and propane (R290) to be used in HVAC applications in the U.S., described their approaches at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) America 2026, held June 2–3 in Tarrytown, New York. (ATMOsphere is the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com.) Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science and technology agency, has opened a new edge data center designed to assist in the development of robots and related sensors that uses two air-cooled 100kW (28.4TR) CO2 (R744) chillers for cooling. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

A panel of independent New York grocers from the National Supermarket Association, Aurora Grocery Group and Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace highlighted the importance of embracing CO2 (R744) refrigeration ahead of the state’s HFC regulations at ATMOsphere America Summit 2026 . Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com