ACR Journal

February | March 2023 REFRIGERANTS 20 Neil Roberts, Senior Technical Sales Manager at Climalife, discusses why it’s important to consider the bigger picture with refrigerant choice. Volume 9 No.2 Be in it for the long haul Since the ozone depletion issue was discovered back in the late 1970s, much to many engineers’ dismay, the number of refrigerants brought to market has ballooned. Having a constantly changing landscape is far from ideal but, for very valid reasons, regulation has kept moving the goal posts at regular intervals and therefore the myriad of refrigerants brought to market have been essential for the industry to maintain its vital role in society and steadily move towards the environmental goals which must be achieved. At the end of this year the next step in the F-Gas phase down comes into force, reducing the available TCO2e by ~30% compared to what is available this year and increases the need to use lower GWP refrigerants. If you are planning to install new RACHP systems this year, then now is the time to plan which refrigerants are the best choice going forward. A large amount of equipment is still available for use with relatively high GWP (>1000) refrigerants but are these the best long-term choices or is it time to look beyond today's ‘go to’ refrigerants and use a low GWP option? Refrigerant choice for refrigeration systems The F-Gas regulation has already mandated the use of low GWP for some new systems (table 1) but despite these bans a huge number of RACHP applications are still able Table 1 – Current F-Gas GWP limitations for new equipment Application Limitation Implemented Stationary refrigeration (except where product temperatures <-50°C) <2500 GWP 1st Jan 2020 Hermetically sealed commercial refrigerators and freezers <150 GWP 1st Jan 2022 Multi-compressor retail or food service systems of 40kW or more capacity <150 GWP 1st Jan 2022 to use refrigerants with GWPs up to 2500. The current most commonly used HFC refrigerants in applications outside of the bans are shown in table 2, and all have a GWP in excess of 1000. This is likely to be well above the average GWP that is sustainable during the lifetime of the equipment meaning that any service requirements will heavily rely on the availability of reclaimed refrigerant. Table 2 – Commonly used refrigerant GWPs HFC Refrigerant GWP R-134a 1430 R-407A 2107 R-407C 1774 R-410A 2088 R-448A 1387 R-449A 1397 R-452A 2140 In an assessment report published by DEFRA in December 2022, it was estimated that unless the industry drastically improves how it handles recovered refrigerant, at best only ~30% of HFC refrigerants currently installed in systems will be available for re-use, meaning reclaim refrigerant will be a very finite resource. New equipment installed this year using the higher GWP refrigerants in table 2 cannot guarantee the availability of service quantities to fulfil the expected lifetime of the equipment. So, what are the alternatives? In the past there has always been a retrofit option available but, for products with a GWP >1000, this time around, the options are very limited. R-134a used in medium temperature refrigeration applications can be retrofitted to R-513A, which with a 631 GWP may be a sustainable choice, but why not install it from new and save the expense of retrofitting later. Even better, why not consider a very low GWP option such as R-515B (293 GWP) R471A (148 GWP), R-1234ze (7 GWP) or R-1234yf (4 GWP). For low temperature refrigeration applications R-407A, R-448A, R-449A and R-452A were good lower GWP alternatives to R-404A in the past, but are questionable as a new install in 2023. If these refrigerants are used in new installs, it is unclear if su cient service quantities will be available throughout the expected lifetime of the equipment and retrofit options for these refrigerants are very