A hot topic in the world of refrigeration and air conditioning continues to swirl around refrigerants and what refrigerants will take hold and be used now, besides HFCs, and what will supplant HFCs in the future.
With HFC refrigerants secure for the foreseeable future, it is still interesting to take a look from time to time at phase down talk and how the industry may adjust should that become a reality.
A recent wave of published reports focuses on new ways to monitor HCFCs during their phaseout period, HFCs in terms of their long-term potential, and how Canada is dealing with the disposal of unwanted refrigerants.
Fresh on the heels of the announcement of an almost 50 percent reduction in supplies of virgin HCFC-22, the supermarket industry is reacting. What are they focusing on now?
If and when contractors step up their commitment to reclamation, they will find plenty of places ready to perform the process that brings questionable refrigerant back to ARI-700 purity standards. And contractors will also find plenty of incentives to do so.
It did not take long for the HVACR industry to respond to reports from overseas about rogue refrigerants used in hundreds of transport HFC-134a refrigeration systems, which allegedly were responsible for a number of explosions and at least three deaths.
The world of so-called natural refrigerants, particularly hydrocarbons (HCs), has gotten a lot more interesting recently. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given Significant New Alternatives Program (SNAP) approval to three HCs.
The long-term availability of HFCs survived another effort at phase-down during the 23rd Meeting of the Parties (MOP23) to the Montreal Protocol held in November 2011. Participants did not reach agreement on taking any action to control HFCs.
While there are no pending regulations that would curb production of HFCs, those specific refrigerants are a part of the equation when talk turns to the broad, emotionally laden topic of global warming.
