The ATMOsphere Podcast Network

Discount retailer Lidl GB, the Great Britain subsidiary of Lidl Germany, has announced plans to modernize over 70 existing stores, with natural refrigerant chillers included in the £43 million ($58 million/€49 million) retrofit investment. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

The North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) will be holding its next free training event for commercial and industrial refrigeration technicians in Poughkeepsie, New York, February 10–12, addressing a knowledge gap among New York State technicians regarding CO2 (R744) refrigeration. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

Adam Slavney, CEO and Co-Founder of U.S.-based startup Pascal, outlined the potential of the company’s low-pressure solid-state barocaloric refrigeration design at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit 2025 . Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

ATMOsphere, the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com, has released “Clean Cooling for Data Centers 2025,” a new report featuring nine articles based on in-depth interviews with cooling system and component manufacturers. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

Noritz Corporation and Nihon Itomic Co., Ltd. have announced a new partnership to develop commercial CO2 (R744) heat pump water heaters for the North American market. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

A newly opened AstraZeneca pharmaceutical park in Qingdao, China, is equipped with a Haier Carrier CO2 (R744) heat pump system that provides comfort heating and cooling across the 54,000m2 (581,251ft2) complex. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

A wide range of equipment designed for CO2 (R744) – including heat pumps, racks, a condensing unit, compressors, valves, tubes and oil separators – will be showcased at the AHR Expo (International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition), scheduled for February 2–4, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

As part of its U.K. framework appointment by Procure Plus , Viessmann Climate Solutions, a division of Carrier Global Corporation, is providing propane (R290)-based heat pumps for social housing and other public sector low- and zero-carbon projects. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

ATMOsphere, publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com, has issued a call for clean-cooling and -heating case studies to be presented at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) America Summit 2026, which will be held June 2–3 in New York City. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

Magnotherm Solutions’ refrigerant-free cooling solution, using magnetocaloric effect solid-state refrigeration, is 15% more energy-efficient than a comparable propane (R290) system, according to Timur Sirman, CEO and Co-Founder of the German startup. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

These were the top stories in the natural refrigerants industry for the week of January 16th, 2026. The full stories can be found on NaturalRefrigerants.com. Monitoring of PFAS, Including TFA, Begins Under EU Drinking Water Directive With Malta’s Ratification, All 27 EU Countries Are Now Party to the Kigali Amendment Interview: HotGreen Solutions’ CEO and Co-founder Details Its New Industrial Hydr...

The European Commission announced on January 12 that, under new rules in the EU’s recast Drinking Water Directive, member states must begin monitoring “in a harmonized way” per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels in drinking water to ensure compliance with new EU limit values. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

Italian manufacturer Clivet, part of the Chinese Midea Group, has expanded its air-to-water reversible propane (R290) heat pump line to include the Edge Pro L, offering capacities of 25 and 30kW (7.1 and 8.5TR) for light commercial and centralized residential applications. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

With Malta’s ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on December 19, 2025, all 27 European Union member states have now ratified the international agreement to phase down HFCs. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

Olaf Schulze, Director of Energy Management/Real Estate Sustainability at METRO Properties, outlined the wholesaler’s refrigeration and heating decarbonization strategies in a presentation at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit 2025, with 59% of its global stores/depots already using natural refrigerants. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

In October 2025, British industrial heat pump startup HotGreen Solutions announced a £1.2 million ($1.6 million/€1.4 million) pre-seed funding round , which featured participation from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP). In addition to its investment, CCEP announced that it would trial HotGreen’s new heat pump. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 22 released an enforcement statement in regard to the 2023 Technology Transitions Rule, noting that enforcement of current deadlines addressed by the proposed reconsideration of the rule is a “low priority” for the agency. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

This Expert Opinion column has been written by Amrit Robbins, CEO and Co-founder of Axiom Cloud , whose AI-powered refrigeration management software is used by grocery stores and cold storage facilities to enable predictive maintenance and early leak detection. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

This is your weekly recap of the news in natural refrigerants. Here are the stories covered, all of which can be found on NaturalRefrigerants.com. New York Supreme Court Rules Against Challenge to HFC Regulations U.S. EPA Says Enforcement of January 2026 Deadlines for Technology Transitions Rule ‘a Low Priority’ Copeland/Daikin Joint Venture to Introduce Swing Rotary Compressors to European Reside...

The New York State Supreme Court, County of Albany, on December 22 ruled against the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) and Heating, Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) in their action to void updated regulations on HFC emissions set in late 2024 by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Read the full sto...

German temperature control equipment manufacturer Lauda has introduced its first CO2 (R744) refrigerant-based process thermostat, Integral IN 2040 XTW , for laboratory and industrial applications. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

Brazil has completed the training of 700 HVAC&R technicians in the safe handling of flammable refrigerants in split air-conditioning systems as part of the second stage of its national HCFC Phase-Out Management Plan (PBH), which concluded in December 2025. ⁠Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com⁠

Copeland and Daikin are expanding their existing joint venture to introduce inverter swing rotary compressors to the European residential heat pump market, with matching power and electronic controls. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com

As part of California’s F-gas Reduction Incentive Program (FRIP), the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) has launched a Workforce Development Initiative to support the design, installation and maintenance of ultra-low-GWP refrigeration systems. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.

With the three-year LC R290 project nearing completion, the Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) highlighted its developments in low-charge propane (R290) heat pumps for multi-family homes at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit 2025. Read the full story on NaturalRefrigerants.com.