ATMO Europe Awards 2025: Natural refrigerants and emerging technologies drive industry innovation

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The 2025 edition of the ATMO Europe Awards highlighted the most advanced and sustainable solutions in the world of refrigeration and heat pumps.

The awards confirmed a well-established trend: the transition to technologies based on natural refrigerants, high-efficiency systems, and alternative solutions to traditional gases is accelerating.

A concrete signal for the entire HVAC/R supply chain, called to invest in reliability, innovation, and sustainability.

The award-winning projects: CO₂, efficiency, and new technologies beyond traditional refrigerants

The 2025 edition recognized companies and organizations that have successfully adopted advanced refrigeration solutions, capable of ensuring high performance and reduced environmental impact.

From retail to large industry, passing through the world of research, a growing attention emerges towards:

• commercial and industrial systems based entirely on natural refrigerants ,
• CO₂ systems capable of operating even in extreme conditions,
• high efficiency heat pumps designed for complex applications,
• innovative “refrigerant-free” technologies , which experiment with new physical cooling principles.

Award-winning solutions include advanced CO₂ systems, air handling units with combined heating and DHW production functions, and applications that exploit phenomena such as the magnetocaloric effect, which pave the way for alternative forms of gas-free refrigeration.

Why the ATMO Awards point to a clear direction for the industry

The value of the awards lies not only in the technical quality of the projects, but in the strategic signal they send to operators: sustainable refrigeration is no longer a niche, but a concrete opportunity already implemented in real installations.

The trends that clearly emerge are:

• industrial maturity of CO₂ , now used on a large scale in commercial and industrial contexts;
• growing importance of natural heat pumps , solutions that combine comfort, efficiency and emission reduction;
• interest in radically innovative technologies, which could further reduce dependence on traditional refrigerants;
• readiness of end users, including large international companies, to invest in “future-proof” technologies.

For those who design, install, or manage systems in the HVAC/R sector, the direction is clear: investing today in the highest-performance technologies ensures regulatory continuity, reduced consumption, and greater competitiveness in the medium term.

Implications for HVAC/R Designers and Contractors

The picture that emerges from the ATMO Awards 2025 concerns not only products, but an entire technological ecosystem in transformation.

For HVAC/R professionals, this means investing in knowledge of natural refrigerants, knowing how to design complex CO₂ systems, and staying up-to-date on emerging technologies that could, over time, redefine market standards.

The award-winning plants represent a clear direction: greater efficiency, operational reliability, intelligent integration, and reduced emissions. This direction, in the medium term, will guide both the design choices and commercial strategies of companies in the sector.