What will it take to jump-start more use of reclaimed HCFC-22 to service the huge inventory of equipment running on that refrigerant? The EPA and the dozens of companies offering reclamation services are hoping the most recent announcement of a potential 45 percent reduction in virgin R-22 coming to market.
How ready are contractors to embrace refrigerant reclamation? The answer depends on who you talk to. But some contractors are already plugged into the reclamation option — and hoping their colleagues, who might not be doing so, will soon join them.
How much HCFC-22 will be available to contractors in 2012 is an unanswered question as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers a faster phaseout of HCFCs. The EPA began the year by issuing a proposal called Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Adjustments to the Allowance System for Controlling HCFC Production, Import, and Export.
HCFC-22 may not have been historically a refrigeration refrigerant, but it sure has been high on the minds of those wholesalers who deal with a lot of refrigeration products.
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.
Production and importation of HCFC refrigerants including R-22 have been on hold since the first of the year while the industry waits for an official go-ahead from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The year 2011 introduced the concept of dry-shipping HCFC-22 condensing units for retrofit applications, and that shipping and use is expected to continue through 2012.
The ongoing approval process to bring online an innovative approach to dealing with refrigerants that have reached the end of their useful life has taken another step forward.
When mechanical refrigeration came along, refrigerants such as sulfur dioxide and ammonia and the fluorocarbons were introduced. The latter two — ammonia and f-gases — are still being used. Of the fluorocarbons, the choices were pretty simple: CFCs -11, -12, and -502. It is not so simple these days.
According to the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI), effective Oct. 1, Refrigerant Management Canada (RMC) increased the environmental levy on HCFCs by $1.00.