ACR Journal

22 ADVERTORIAL Across nearly every industry worldwide, there has been a continued push for fuel and energy efficiency – along with a reduction in global warming impacts. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry has been a focal point of that trend. A2L and New Refrigerant Strategies Take Holistic View of Environmental Impacts The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the energy used to cool residential and commercial buildings accounted for a full 10 percent of total electricity consumption. The latest push in the industry to help reduce electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions is the shift to A2L HVAC systems featuring new refrigerant types designed to be both energy efficient as well as less impactful toward global warming. The use of advanced A2L refrigerants – and their widespread use – will help drive a continued reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and continue a push for a healthier world. Push for A2L - Regulatory and Historical Background The processes which set the stage for the development of A2L refrigerants go back to the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s, when scientists studying the thinning of the ozone layer in Earth’s atmosphere discovered the impact man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) were having on the planet. Those discoveries ultimately led the way to the creation of the Montreal Protocol through the United Nations, which was adopted in September of 1987. To this day, it is the only treaty which that has been ratified every country on Earth - all 198 UN Member States. That treaty created a phase-down schedule for almost 100 man-made chemicals designated as ozone depleting substances – many of which had been traditionally used in refrigeration and air conditioning contexts. Under that schedule, developed countries completed phased out HCFCs by 2020, and developing countries operating under a timeline of 2030. Introduced to replace those ozone-depleting chemicals in many cases were another group of substances - hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). While they did not have the same negative impact on the ozone layer, these chemicals did still have elevated global warming potential (GWP), creating an outsized effect on global warming. To address that aspect of the dynamic, the United Nations developed the Kigali Amendment in 2016, which would look to phase out HFCs over time, reducing their use by 80 to 85 percent by the late 2040s in developed countries. Many European