ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS Where are we now?
Martyn Cooper, commercial manager at the Federation of Environmental Trade Associations (FETA), discusses the latest developments in the F-Gas regulation and how it is aff ecting the refrigeration industry in the UK.
T
here have been many ‘phase-out’ announcements by various governments in recent years aimed at protecting the environment, such as incandescent light bulbs and diesel and petrol powered motor vehicles. With these phase-outs comes the inevitable push towards more environmentally friendly alternatives, and the challenge now is overcoming some of the scepticism that greets anything that forces us to change our ways, however minor. Just like the motor, lighting or any other industries that have posed a threat to the environment in generations past, the acr and heat pump industries have had to ask themselves what they can do to safeguard the future health of our planet.
The EU F-Gas Regulation, introduced in 2015, represents a pragmatic way of controlling emissions of the whole family of F-Gases. It is but the latest step in a progression of F-Gas changes, all of which sit within the wider goals of addressing climate change. It has already had the eff ect of moving the industry toward lower GWP refrigerants.
The MAC directive requires all new cars produced in the EU from 01 January 2017 to use a refrigerant in their air conditioning system with a GWP of less than 150. This requirement has applied to new models since 01 January 2012, and was part of the fi rst F-Gas regulation, and has facilitated the move away from R134a, which had a GWP of 1430.
Moving away from R404A
The current F-Gas regulation will ban the use of refrigerants with GWP > 2,500 in both new equipment and for servicing from 2020, and has had a major impact on the commercial refrigeration industry, where the most commonly used refrigerant is R404A with a GWP of 3,922. The British Refrigeration Association (BRA), a FETA association, has been advising members to use lower GWP alternatives, and published a September 2015 report, Putting into Use Replacement Refrigerants, highlighting this issue.
40 December 2017
As a consequence of the regulation, many UK end users, particularly supermarkets, are moving away from R404A towards lower GWP alternatives. In new systems this is almost exclusively carbon dioxide, which has a GWP of 1. As CO2
is not suitable for use in existing systems (of which there are many thousands) a number of products with GWPs of 1,300-2,000 have been developed, and are being used to retrofi t existing systems to enable the move away from R404A. Integral units which make use of hydrocarbon refrigerants are also becoming increasingly popular. Hydrocarbons have a very low GWP but, due to their high fl ammability, cannot be used in large distributed systems. It is not possible to retrofi t existing supermarkets to CO2
without a complete change
of system; hence the mid-range GWP refrigerants represent a reasonable and practical compromise for existing stores until such time as a store undergoes complete refurbishment. These products are also generally more energy effi cient than R404A, and hence reduce GHG emissions from electricity generation.
What are my options?
The move to lower GWP refrigerants presents a number of challenges, as many of the alternatives to HFCs have signifi cantly diff erent properties.
Carbon dioxide, whilst having a GWP of 1, operates at considerably higher system pressures than HFC refrigerants (10 times higher) and hence requires new standards of installation and maintenance. This limits it to new systems specifi cally designed for its use. Almost all new supermarkets opening in the UK use CO2
in their refrigeration systems.
Hydrocarbons such as propane and butane are perfectly good refrigerants with low GWPs, and almost all domestic fridges and freezers use one of these products. However, they are highly fl ammable which limits their use in many applications. They cannot be retrofi tted into existing HFC systems, but, as previously noted,
are widely used in integral units. Ammonia is a widely used refrigerant with negligible GWP, but its use is limited by its toxicity and fl ammability. HFOs, the new ultra-low GWP fl uorocarbon refrigerants, have been developed as HFC replacements. They are also fl ammable, but very considerably less than hydrocarbons. The European standard on safety of refrigerants (EN378) has recognised this distinct diff erence with a diff erent classifi cation for these products. HFCs are classifi ed as A1; A for non-toxic, 1 for non-fl ammable. Hydrocarbons are classifi ed as A3, where 3 represents high fl ammability. The new HFOs are classifi ed as A2L; 2L refl ecting their low fl ammability compared with class 2 and 3.
The refrigerant now used in automotive air conditioning is one of these gases, and was only introduced after exhaustive risk assessments which proved it to be safe in use.
A vital aspect that needs to be considered when looking at the subject of F-Gases is that of energy effi ciency. In the order of half of the power consumed by a typical supermarket will go into the refrigeration systems, and it is vital that these are as effi cient as possible. In this case, the GWP of a gas is not a full measure of its impact on the environment. A balanced approach needs to be taken when selecting alternatives, to ensure the overall environmental impact of any system is kept to the absolute minimum.
The current refrigerant of choice for air conditioning equipment is R410A, which has a GWP of 2000 and is classifi ed as A1. The only lower GWP alternatives for this application will all be A2L class gases with low fl ammability – there is no non-fl ammable option.
The European Refrigerants safest standard, EN378, specifi es the charge size allowable for diff erent applications of fl ammable gases
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