About this presentation

related to ATMOsphere America 2013
published on 19 June 2013
11 pages
716 KB

Gerard Von Dohlen, CEO of Port Newark Refrigerated Warehouse, outlined the history of ammonia as a refrigerant and its development from before 1930 to today. He compared R22 to ammonia, concluding that ammonia, which is cheaper, more efficient and environmentally friendly, is the best industrial refrigerant. Von Dohlen also mentions the challenges of using ammonia, including regulatory issues. 

About the speaker(s)

Gerard Von Dohlen

 

Gerard is currently the CEO of a company operating 2 public refrigerated warehouses in the New York area installing innovative refrigeration systems. He is an active member of several trade associations including the Global Cold Chain Alliance for whom he chairs the Refrigeration and Energy Committee. One of the public refrigerated warehouses uses natural gas engine driven compressors and a brine desiccant system using waste heat for regeneration instead of hot gas defrost evaporators. The system won the Chairman’s Award at the American Gas Cooling Center for the best natural gas based refrigeration system in the country. Gerard is also building a fully automated crane building with 20,000 pallets refrigerated by a system including a cooling tower, chiller package, and desiccant.

Gerard received a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering in 1964 and an MBA (1966) and a PhD (1970) from Columbia University’s Graduate Business School. Gerard taught accounting and finance at Columbia’s business school until he entered the banking community. Subsequent to a career in banking, he has been the CEO of a building products company, a defense contractor, a hotel company, and now a public refrigerated warehouse.