A Westlake Village company wants to help businesses keep cool with eco-friendly, energy-efficient, proprietary refrigerants. Alltemp Inc. developed the product as a “drop-in” replacement for R-22, a popular refrigerant scheduled to be phased out in coming years by Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. Chief Executive William Lopshire said the product, also called Alltemp, is an ideal replacement for standard refrigerants, which are chemicals that absorb heat inside a building or container and then dispel the heat outside, making refrigeration and air conditioning possible. But Lopshire soon realized he needed more than his opinion to convince industrial customers to switch to his company rather than stay with established refrigerant suppliers such as Honeywell International Inc. and DuPont. “We needed irrefutable proof of efficacy,” said Lopshire. “We had to show that using Alltemp will result in reduction in energy consumption and increased (cooling) capacity.” To do this, the company launched an early adopter program, which targeted large users such as data centers, department stores and hotels. “We provided installation and the product for free,” Lopshire explained. “Then we put monitoring and verification sensors and data loggers in the equipment.” The sensors were installed prior to the switch to provide before-and-after comparisons. “In every instance there was energy savings,” Lopshire said. Now there are more than 20 potential buyers coming off the program – hopefully transitioning into regular clients. One collaboration Lopshire is excited about is with Commonwealth Edison, the largest electrical utility in Illinois. The company may issue rebates to its customers to encourage them to adopt Alltemp. In anticipation of rising sales,AllTemp recently spent half a million dollars to expand its manufacturing facility in Roseburg, Ore. The expansion increased production capacity to 5 million pounds of refrigerant each month from 1 million pounds. The industry standard refrigerant is R-22, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon or HCFC that became popular after the Montreal Protocol in 1987. That agreement, signed by 46 countries, aimed to phase out substances that were deemed responsible for ozone depletion. including chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC-based refrigerants commonly called Freon. R-22 was created as an alternative to Freon with very low ozone depleting potential. Unfortunately, it turned out HCFC-based refrigerants caused greenhouse gases, one of the main causes of global warming. In response, the Montreal Protocol was amended to include the phasing out of HCFC. In accordance with the revised agreement, the EPA set a goal for the United States to reduce 99.5 percent of refrigerants using HCFCs by 2020, and complete the phaseout by 2030. Since then, companies like Honeywell and DuPont have created alternative refrigerants and blends, but Lopshire believes most alternatives do not live up to the performance of Alltemp, especially in their capacity to cool large areas. While competing against giant public companies will be an uphill battle, Lopshire believes proven test results will set up his product for mass adoption in the air conditioning and refrigeration markets. – Iris Lee
