REFRIGERATION
An industry seen through fresh eyes
Sales and marketing coordinator at Climalife UK, Georgie Hillier, looks back at her first six months in the refrigeration industry.
F
luorochemicals…HFC’s, HFO’s, GWP, A2L … were all terms that were brand new to me six months ago when I started my journey into the world of refrigeration.
Now, I have begun to gain an insight into the industry and how vital it is to the function and sustainability of the modern world we live in. If you had asked me a year ago what the refrigeration
industry was all about, I most likely would have said refrigerating food and keeping it fresh; but in reality, there is so much more to it than that. Refrigeration is all around us and can be found in aspects of everyday life from supporting transport networks, allowing scientific and medicinal developments, data centre cooling to the whole manufacturing cycle of a wide range of products, from initial production to operating retail outlets. It is not until you step into the industry that you develop a real appreciation for how important it is. There are so many areas within the industry that go hidden behind closed doors, but without them, we would not lead the modern lives we do today.
Understanding the History of Refrigeration F 14 September 2020
or me, an important step in learning about the industry and the current market, was to firstly understand the history of refrigeration and how it has changed over
the years.
There have been so many changes in the industry, mainly due to the introduction of F-Gas and other regulations that have caused the landscape of refrigerant options to change in order to adapt and move in line with these regulations and a change in environmental awareness.
The journey of refrigerant gasses starts at the initial CFC’s that were used to replace hazardous refrigerants in the 1920’s. However, by the 1970’s, scientists discovered that these refrigerants weren’t as harmless as they originally thought, and they did in fact cause ozone depletion. This prompted a ban in the manufacturing of CFC’s across the world.
Then began the introduction of HFC’s and HCFC’s which could serve the same purpose as the CFC’s, but without causing the same damage to the Earth’s ozone. However, as these refrigerants were developed prior to the full understating of the impact fluorine has, they are now regulated by evaluating their Global Warming Potential (GWP).
We are now at a stage where HFC’s are slowly being replaced dependant on their GWP value in line with F-Gas regulation. The most significant step in this has been the ban of HFC’s with >2500 GWP in refrigeration systems, with the use of R404A being largely affected by this. Now, there is a 4th generation of refrigerants to take their place – HFO’s. These will be an alternative with low GWP values to ensure they continue to reduce the environmental impact while offering a good level of energy efficiency. A2L’s, low GWP and mildly flammable refrigerants are paving the way as the future heating and cooling solutions. One of the other things that has been interesting to learn about is the history of the Dehon Group, who are the Climalife parent company and have been serving the industry since 1874. The group have continually developed and bought new solutions to the market, which can be
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