COMPRESSORS
A roadmap to using natural refrigerants
Peter Buksar, research and development senior leader at Nidec Global Appliance, responsible for Embraco’s portfolio technical support for Europe unveils the future of refrigerants in compressors.
F
rom any perspective, whether you are a components manufacturer, an original equipment manufacturer, a
contractor or an installer, refrigerant fluids are a complex issue inside the refrigeration industry. There are many aspects involved, such as global environmental agreements banning refrigerants with high global warming potential (HFCs), different local legislations on the subject, a variety of applications with specific characteristics, and a big number of refrigerants options, among synthetic and natural.
One thing clear is that, in October 2020, a total of 106 parties, the European Union being one of them, have signed the Kigali Amendment, agreeing to ban HFC gases with high global warming potential until 2047. Europe, which is among the regions leading the way on this subject, has launched the F-Gas regulation in 2006 and renovated it in 2015. The document brings the rules and timelines to HFCs bans in the European Union, where HFCs with global warming potential above 150 were banned already in 2015 in domestic refrigeration, and the majority of the industry opted for the natural refrigerant R600a (isobutane) as the best substitute for these applications. In the commercial refrigeration industry
the ban started on January 1st of 2020. From that date on, hermetically sealed refrigeration systems that contain HFCs with GWP of 2500
22 November 2020
or more (such as R404A and R507A) are banned in refrigerators and freezers used for storage, display or distribution of products in retail and food service. Also were banned stationary refrigeration equipment that contain HFCs with GWP of 2500 or more, except equipment intended for applications designed to cool products to temperatures below -50°C. Right ahead of us, in 2022, will come the ban on refrigerators and freezers for commercial use – hermetically sealed systems – that contain HFCs with GWP of 150 or more. The F-Gas regulation also defined a quota of
the amount of HFC gases that can be sold in the market, which reduces yearly. So, what we can see is that the clock is
ticking and all businesses involved must be compliant in order to prosper in the medium term in Europe. In this scenario, natural refrigerants have zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and very low or zero global warming potential (GWP), and are being considered the ideal alternative solution to the environmental damage caused by synthetic refrigerants.
To be compliant to the 2020 ban in
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