12 Leak Detection
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GAS LEAKS IN refrigeration units can impose more than financial costs on businesses. Greater acknowledgement of the environmental damage caused by refrigeration gases has led to legislation being introduced to limit their impact, writes Shaun Evers, managing director of Stonegate Instruments. Refrigeration has an
essential role to play in British industry, but it comes at a price. It is estimated that the energy cost to industry is £300m annually – a figure which is not surprising when the importance of refrigeration in the food industry, one of the largest users, is considered. The largest food retail outlets, including over 4,000 supermarkets, have on average five cold rooms each. If the efficiency of cold stores was improved, across all sectors, the financial and environmental benefits would be substantial.
There are a number of easy to implement strategies that can assist, including the timely detection and elimination of gas leaks.
The operation of any refrigeration unit is affected by leaks larger than 0.5oz a year as units have to work harder to stay cool.
In fact, if the cold storage industry dealt with leaks effectively an estimated £40m per year could be saved on
energy costs alone.
Stonegate Instruments has developed a gas detection system, which complies with F-gas regulations and is able to detect leakage of a wide range of refrigerant gases including CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and CO2.
It can accommodate up to 24 remote refrigerant sensors linked to a compact central monitor unit.
Users can adjust the sensitivity to suit their requirements and it can be set with both audible and visual alerts.
The system also has the capacity to record one week of logs for each of the 24 channels.
The control of F-gases is an EU priority as they contribute significantly to the global greenhouse effect and, once released, can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years.
It is estimated that a leak of just 1kg of refrigeration gas can cause approximately the same amount of environmental damage as driving a van for 10,000 miles. With the installation of a Stonegate gas detection system a business can reduce energy costs, cut carbon emissions, and demonstrate corporate responsibility. With payback of less than two years, this technology offers a simple solution for businesses across all sectors.
IT BEGAN WITH the rise in concern over CFC/HCFCs and damage to the ozone layer and has been joined by the emergence of global warming as the most pressing environmental concern. The new F-Gas proposals, ratified by the European Parliament in March 2014, address the problem of high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, with a gradual phase-down in usage of some commonly used air conditioning refrigerants. In the meantime, however, large quantities of refrigerants with a high GWP will remain in use for many years to come. The F-Gas regulation lays down legal requirements to monitor refrigerant leakage either by fixed or hand-held detectors, depending on the size of the system and the amount of refrigerant charge. British Standard Best Practice requires that refrigerant loss be monitored under EN378/ BS EN378, which sets out the practical measures that must be taken if safety limits for refrigerant concentrations in an occupied space could be exceeded in the event of a leak in a particular air conditioning application. Alongside the legislative framework are environmental evaluation schemes such as BREEAM (Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method), now the most widely used programme of its kind for rating the green credentials of buildings. BREEAM gives credits
A supplement to ACR News May 2014
for removing refrigerants completely from a building. However, it recognises that this is not practical for many buildings, and where air conditioning is installed it confers credits for the use of high quality fixed leak detection systems – which it views as adding to the environmental credibility and integrity of a building. Toshiba Air Conditioning believes that minimising and controlling leaks is key to the industry’s reputation for responsible environmental stewardship, and has taken a high profile stand on the issue. The manufacturer recently embarked on a major development project – with the aim of minimising the potential for leakage from working systems and developing new technology to monitor refrigerant loss and respond in the event of a leak. The result is a new approach to detecting and managing refrigerant loss in working systems that offers a comprehensive solution to the challenge of refrigerant containment.
The latest generation of the technology, just released by the manufacturer, introduces a new concept in refrigerant protection – in the form of the building isolation cell. In the event of a refrigerant leak, the system isolates the specific section of refrigerant pipework containing the leak, enabling the rest of the system to continue functioning as normal.
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