NSF ERC for Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub

The EARTH Engineering Research Center will use a team-science approach to bring together talent in engineering (chemical, environmental, mechanical, and materials), architecture, business, chemistry, economics, geography, history, law, psychology, and entrepreneurship in one Innovation Ecosystem to co-create convergent technical and societal solutions with industry partners, technical and community colleges, professional organizations, regulators, and end users. EARTH's vision is to create a transformative "sustainable refrigerant lifecycle" to address the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) ecosystem's key technical and societal challenges: (1) lowering hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions, (2) creating safe, property-balanced replacement refrigerants, and (3) increasing HVACR energy efficiency.