The HVAC market is at an inflection point, in the throes of switching refrigerants to meet regulatory goals, improving energy efficiency to meet more stringent standards, and struggling with supply chain issues. What the industry needs is a new technology at the nexus of environmental issues and energy conservation, enabling the drive away from fossil fuels and toward zero-carbon emissions.
Blue Frontier is working to bring such a system to market with a core air conditioning/energy storage technology that integrates desiccant-enhanced indirect evaporative cooling, thermochemical energy storage, and an efficient converter for transforming renewable electricity into heat.
ultra-efficient air conditioning
The company is seeking to commercialize the new concept of ultra-efficient air conditioning. From Blue Frontier’s world headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., 30 employees are working to advance the technology from the lab to the field, focusing on design for manufacturability.
Proven in the lab, the technology will be validated at scale and then manufactured reliably. Founded in 2017, Blue Frontier has licensed patents from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and seeks to advance and transform a Technology Readiness Level 5 prototype into a fully commercialized and manufactured system.
air dehumidification
After proving the technology to the industry, Blue Frontier could license it to other manufacturers. The technology involves regeneration, which heats a desiccant (a proprietary salt solution) to increase its concentration by emitting water into the atmosphere.
As water is driven from the concentrated solution, it is ready to do the work of air dehumidification (absorbing water from the air) and is available for air conditioning.
concentrated solution
When air conditioning is needed, the concentrated solution is placed in contact with air via indirect evaporative cooling
The concentrated desiccant is stored in a plastic tank, where it remains ready to use in the air conditioning process when necessary; in effect, it is stored energy in the form of "dehumidification potential." The desiccant (salt solution) has no impact on the environment or human health.
When air conditioning is needed, the concentrated solution is placed in contact with air, which it dehumidifies, enabling temperature reduction via indirect evaporative cooling (dew-point style cooling).
50 to 90% electricity reduction
The system separates and independently controls humidity and temperature. It provides up to 100% fresh air ventilation. Thermal energy storage enables load shifting. In effect, the system decouples the direct relationship between the temperature outside and the electricity needed by an air conditioning system.
In terms of electricity bill savings, Blue Frontier offers a 50 to 90% reduction in electricity usage and a 98% reduction in peak demand.
transformational approach
The new approach saves energy, reduces peak demand, and does not rely on refrigerants. A drop-in replacement for technology in a 100-year-old market, it is 300% more energy efficient than vapor compression and eliminates the use of refrigerants.
Unlike the lighting market, for example, air conditioning efficiencies have not improved and are ripe for a transformational approach.
HVAC technology
“As the world becomes hotter and more humid, our system allows people to increase the use of air conditioning without contributing to global warming,” says Greg Tropsa, Blue Frontier’s Executive Vice President for Business Development. “The system works in all climate zones, and the hotter it gets, the more cooling capacity it provides, which is the opposite of vapor air systems.”
The technology evolved from a 2009 Department of Energy grant seeking to mitigate the threat of anthrax using HVAC technology. Using liquid desiccants dries the air and eliminates the growth of spores of a variety of air pathogens. The cooling benefits of the approach evolved as the technology was developed.
air-conditioning energy
EIA projects that air-conditioning energy use will grow faster between 2022 and 2050
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that air-conditioning energy use will grow faster than any other use in buildings between 2022 and 2050.
In fact, by 2050, the global consumption of energy for air conditioning will equal the combined total electricity consumption of India and China currently. The growth is not sustainable with current technologies.
rooftop units
Blue Frontier’s initial manufactured products will be rooftop units in 5-ton to 20-ton sizes. Paving the way to growth are installation first costs that are low or equivalent to the market today, achievable while providing incremental benefits.
“It is almost impossible for technologies to make it to scale,” says Tropsa. “This has all the earmarks of being able to achieve that.”
Series A financing
Blue Frontier recently raised a $20M Series A equity investment led by Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, 2150 Urban Tech Sustainability Fund, and Volo Earth Ventures. Blue Frontier's commercialization and manufacturing partner, Modern Niagara, also participated in the funding round.
The Series A financing will accelerate Blue Frontier's ability to bring its product to market, propelling the company towards its goal of creating gigaton reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by decarbonizing building cooling.
Reducing carbon footprint
Between 2022 and 2024, the company will be seeking to install tryout systems at early-adopter companies
The timeline for introduction and commercialization is early 2024 when Blue Frontier will seek to unveil its product at the AHR show. Between 2022 and then, the company will be seeking to install tryout systems at early-adopter companies.
“Today we are looking for early adopters who have high sustainability goals and public commitments to reduce their carbon footprint,” says Tropsa.
Performance
During 2023-2024, the company will release a limited number of units (1,000) to prove its performance. In the 2024-2025 timeframe, they will accelerate market penetration by working with utility companies seeking to lower electricity usage.
Electric utilities are attracted to the technology as a “non-wire alternative,” (NWA) a route to lowering energy demand rather than having to build more capacity. The desiccant is recharged and stored when electricity is the cleanest or lowest cost, and later used to deliver cooling when electricity is dirty or costly.
Saving money
Customers save money on electricity bills, decarbonize their systems, and reduce the impact of air conditioning on the environment. Air conditioning in buildings is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions (including energy usage and the impact of refrigerants).
Blue Frontier's systems address every major issue associated with present-day air conditioning with a ground-breaking replacement for Packaged Rooftop Units that dominate the commercial buildings air conditioning market:
- Eliminates high Global Warming Potential ("GWP") refrigerant with liquid desiccant technology.
- Dramatically reduces AC electrical consumption by 50-90% depending on weather and usage.
- Eliminates peak electrical demand by integrating energy storage with a proprietary saltwater solution, which allows AC to intelligently store and use excess renewable energy.
- Enables early replacement of traditional ACs with HVAC-as-a-Service, a business model designed to speed market adoption by removing capital investment requirements.