A veteran who served in the Navy, Peter Zeller of Charlotte, NC, has worked for Honeywell, Inc., for close to 16 years. A Charlotte, NC-based business executive, Peter Zeller first started as a commodity leader and is presently a director of strategic sourcing.
In April, Honeywell Inc., announced that it will work with food retailer Whole Foods to install refrigerants in its US stores designed to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Honeywell is a corporation that devises innovative technologies, and is a leader in selling refrigerants. Alternatively, the natural and organic food retailer has adopted the company’s Solstice N40 (R-448A), a lower global-warming-potential (GWP) refrigerant for use in its grocery stores.
The purpose is to not only meet its sustainability goals, but also to work toward meeting standards under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) GreenChill program. The program is a partnership that the EPA shares with food retailers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting alternative solutions and reducing refrigerants that deplete the ozone. Whole Foods is a founding member of the partnership that now includes 12 certified stores.
The Solstice N40 has a GWP (global-warming-potential) that is 68 percent less than legacy hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants, e.g., R-404A. N40 also results in less energy consumption than its R-404A counterpart. Trials in the US and European markets show that cooling equipment using Solstice N40 consumes from five to 15 percent less energy than that using R-404A. Moreover, existing systems can be retrofitted to use N40 or it can be integrated into new systems.
