REFRIGERANTS
Choosing the right refrigerant for commercial applications
Jörg Saar, global applications manager at Danfoss Cooling looks at the refrigerant options available.
A
s the F-Gas Regulation impacts refrigerant price and availability,
those in charge of designing, installing or operating cold rooms and other commercial refrigeration solutions in Europe are left
with several critical questions they must answer: ■ What is the impact on our operations? ■ What is the best replacement for our current refrigerants? ■ Which solutions will best suit our applications over the long term?
Key regulations
The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol came into force at the beginning of 2019, but more pressing for commercial refrigeration application HVACR professionals to comply with is the EU’s recent F-Gas Regulation, which has been in force across the European Union since 2015. F-Gas consists of three main elements: ■ Service on already installed equipment with a GWP over 2500:
From 2020 onwards, only recycled refrigerants can be used for servicing. From 2030 onwards, no service is allowed outside these exceptions:
➤ When the refrigerant charge is less than 40 tonnes CO2 eq. (or 10.2 kg for R404A)
➤ When temperatures are below -50˚C ➤ When military equipment is involved
■ A ban on the use of F-Gases in many types of equipment: Different refrigeration equipment will have GWP limits
placed on the refrigerants installers and manufacturers can use with them. Rolling out in phases until 2025, these restrictions apply to both domestic refrigerators and freezers, through to commercial refrigeration and air conditioning solutions.
■ A phase-down of HFC refrigerants in the market: As part of its push to reduce the impact of global warming, F-Gas calls for a phase-down of CO2
equivalent tons of all new refrigerants placed on the market.
During 2017, the regulation called for a 7% reduction in equivalent tons of CO2
% reduction.
What are the alternative options? Between the changes to servicing and the stringent requirements for CO2
. By the end of 2018, it required a 37
reduction required by F-Gas, it’s
clear that many common refrigerants today cannot be used in cold rooms and other self-contained commercial refrigeration applications over the long-term. However, selecting an alternative to current high- GWP refrigerants can be a challenge. In the following sections, we will give advice on alternatives to popular non-flammable refrigerants and offer additional models with flammable refrigerants that can guide commercial refrigeration equipment installers and OEMs to make the right choice.
In Europe, because of its high GWP, R404A will soon be unsuitable for many applications as part of the F-Gas
12 June 2019
www.acr-news.com
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