2009 brings worrying, challenging and interesting times which the ACR industry must embrace said Institute of Refrigeration's president Jane Gartshore
Issuing her rallying cry to the acr troops, at the IoR's 109th dinner on February 12, she said: 'I see the year, indeed years ahead as the perfect platform to reinvigorate our industry. Never has energy efficiency and climate change put us in such a high profile position. A position to be grasped and capitalised on!'

Against a backdrop of a recession, Gartshore referred to the 'the full force' of the F Gas regulation now upon the industry, the F Gas refrigerant handling qualifications just starting to be delivered, R22 and other virgin HCFC phase out at the end of 2009, and the use of alternative natural refrigerants including CO2 and HCs continuing to gain momentum with more systems being installed.

Her words to the audience gathered at the London venue were clear: 'Our industry needs to embrace the change, for the change itself presents huge opportunities'.

The president spoke about the opportunities for businesses to raise their profile, 'upskill' engineers, develop specialities in delivering reincarnated technologies such as CO2, and 'correct what we have all been doing badly for decades - a good example being refrigerant containment'.

Gartshore stressed the importance of continuing leakage reduction efforts by having rigorous maintenance schemes, seeking the best leak detection methods and equipment, finding and repairing the leaks and allowing for dramatic reduction in HFC usage.

The president also said the outcome of new refrigerant handling assessments 'cannot be disputed. More engineers will receive a higher level of training over the next 2½ years than our industry has ever delivered in its history. This is a huge challenge both financially and logistically, but what an opportunity for our industry to correct years of myth and misconception'.

The future president of the IoR is Andy Pearson, who takes over the role shortly after the 2010 IoR dinner.

IoR award winners

The 2009 IoR dinner's award winners included Savvas Tassou, Doug Marriott, Issa Chaer, Nyoman Sugiartha and Nyoman Suamir, who received the Kenneth Lightfoot Medal for their paper 'Trigeneration - a solution to efficient use of energy in the food industry'. They received a £500 cheque.

Dr Dereje Shiferaw of Brunel University won the Ted Perry Award for his research addressing the need for environmentally friendly high cooling capacity demand.

Robert Taylor, a senior commissioning engineer at Star Refrigeration was presented with the Service Engineers Section Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ron Conry was awarded the J&E Hall Gold Medal and a £5,000 prize in recognition of the most noteworthy practical contribution to the field of refrigeration. Conry was praised for his determination to design from scratch a centrifugal compressor that would be efficient, operate at high speed, be oil free, light weight, quiet, without vibration and be fully integrated and cost competitive. More than 10,000 Turbocor compressors are in operation worldwide.