New technology reduces energy use, greenhouse gas emissions of vehicle air conditioning, refrigeration units, residential heat pumps.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last night awarded a 2006 Climate Protection Award to DENSO Corporation for developing a new technology - Ejector Cycle ® - that reduces energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of vehicle air conditioning, refrigeration units and residential heat pumps.

"DENSO's revolutionary new Ejector Cycle technology for refrigeration and air conditioning protects the climate by reducing the impacts of both refrigerant greenhouse gas emissions and air conditioning energy use," said EPA officials when presenting the award.

"When this technology is installed in a refrigeration unit and combined with other complementary breakthroughs in components and controls, it can demonstrate efficiency improvements of 50 percent or more," said Hikaru Sugi, managing officer and head of DENSO's Thermal Systems Business Group. "This leads to a 70 percent reduction in refrigerant emissions and a 60 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions."

"This year's Climate Protection Award winners have set impressive goals, employed innovative approaches and demonstrated what can be achieved in the interest of protecting our climate," said William Wehrum, acting assistant administrator for Air and Radiation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We congratulate DENSO on their outstanding achievement."

DENSO Corporation was one of 13 organisations and individuals recognised with the EPA's 2006 Climate Protection Award. It was the fourth EPA award earned by DENSO. Other EPA awards include:

• 2004 for developing (with Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Industries Corporation, both located in Aichi prefecture) an electrical inverter air conditioning system that provides cooling for the Toyota Prius during 'idle' stop when the engine shuts down to save fuel and emissions;
• 2002 for developing and marketing (with Tokyo Electric Power Company and Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, both located in Tokyo) the world’s first mass-produced CO2 refrigerant, heat-pump water heater for households, and
• 1993 for developing methods to convert air conditioning systems to HFC-134a, a more environmentally friendly coolant, which replaced the ozone-depleting refrigerant CFC-12.