ACR Journal

The progress on stepping down GWP continues to be dramatic. Average GWP in 2015 was 2000 and this will need to fall to 900 by next year. The current average of all the gas placed on the market is a GWP of 1260. To put that in perspective we need to remind ourselves of the GWP of commonly used refrigerants across the sector today. It is clear from the chart below that some refrigerants that are very much needed for the foreseeable future sit above that average figure. There is, therefore, a lot of work for the industry to do to achieve its targets while maintaining stocks of refrigerant for use across the UK. The phase down step is achievable if we manage the refrigerants already on the market more responsibly i.e. with more recycling and reclamation – as we explained in our REFCOM Technical Bulletin TB041, published in March 2018: “Many companies employing field engineers find that the engineer leaving the workshop to attend a service call will pick up a bottle from stock before heading out. However, where the bottle only has 2 or 3 kgs left in it, the engineer frequently leaves that one and picks up a fuller bottle, rarely thinking to use the small amount left in the other bottles first. This not only leaves several kgs of various refrigerant gases in a variety of bottles, but it also leaves bottles in stock beyond their rental date, instigating rental charges, or lost bottle charges. Frequently these small amounts are sent back to avoid the rental charges, and that gas is then lost to the system. “Instead of sending back f-gas that will be sent for destruction and then lost to the system, by aggregating small amounts of virgin refrigerant into a clean receiver recovery bottle you can build up enough virgin refrigerant in that bottle to make it more likely to be used by field engineers when attending service call-outs. This is a sustainable management of f-gases from an environmental point of view anyway, but is an increasingly sensible way of dealing with the gases as the value of that gas increases monthly.” Recycling or reclaiming refrigerant that has already been placed on the market does not use any quota - so the more recycled refrigerant we use in a sustainable manner, the more refrigerant there will be left under the quota allowance for other essential use. Alternatives – handle with care Where there is no reclaimed f-gas, there are numerous alternative options commercially available for many sectors. This makes the use of lower GWP and even ultra-low GWP alternatives not only desirable, but absolutely necessary if we are to protect those sectors that don’t have the luxury of an alternative and must continue using the medium GWP HFCs for the foreseeable future. ➜ Refrigerant Name R744 (CO 2 ) * R290* R1234ze R454C/ R455A R32 R448A R449A R410A GWP 1 3 7 148 675 1387 1397 2088 *added for illustrative purposes - not covered under f-gas phase down requirements The Refrigerant Update ❘ 05