Germany. Eberhard Günther, the man behind the production of the first hydrocarbon refrigerators, died at the age of 70.
Günther worked at the German company Foron, which partnered with the environmental group Greenpeace to produce the first Greenfreeze refrigerators in 1992.
Using isobutane for the refrigerant and cyclopentane to blow the insulation foam, the Greenfreeze refrigerator was a revolutionary concept and met with strong opposition from traditionalists within the refrigeration industry who had largely adopted R134a as a substitute for CFCs.
After three weeks of its launch, and against all odds, Greenpeace racked up 70,000 sales contracts in Germany, demonstrating a demand for environmentally safe refrigerators.
On March 15, 1993, the first Greenfreeze refrigerators rolled off the Foron assembly lines. Within a year, the technology spread throughout Germany and other European countries. The same year, Greenpeace introduced Greenfreeze technology to China and Japan.
Günther's efforts were recognized in 1993 when he was named as the winner of the first German Environmental Prize of the DBU (German Federal Environmental Foundation).
