A widespread ban of HFCs has been recommended to the European Parliament by the F-Gas Regulation review’s rapporteur, Bas Eickhout, Dutch Green MEP, who has also called for a series of significant amendments to the European Commission’s proposal, published late last year.
Ongoing discussions are currently underway, examining ways to incorporate HFCs into the protocol in order to phase down their use due to relatively high global warming potential (GWP).
This article focuses on the retrofitting of HFC refrigerants into systems designed for use with HCFC-22. There are now a wide range of HFC retrofit refrigerants for a wide range of R-22 applications from air conditioning through refrigeration.
This past fall, the automobile manufacturer Daimler came out saying it was holding off using HFO-1234yf for auto air conditioning even though a directive from the European Union was calling for moving away from HFC-134a. Some saw that as a question about how much traction HFOs were getting as long-term alternatives to HFCs.
The European Commission (EC), the executive body of the 25 member countries of the European Union (EU) responsible for proposing legislation, is continuing its efforts to phase down — and in some applications phase out — use of HFC refrigerants in much of Europe.
It’s important for readers within the refrigeration industry to be aware of what’s being talked about in Europe, especially from a regulatory standpoint. There is talk of a phaseout of virgin HFC refrigerant production rather than a phasedown.
The attention that’s being paid to HFC refrigerants used as retrofits in HCFC-22 systems is among the more positive developments in the industry. Refrigerant manufacturers are working with contractors and end users in doing such retrofits in real-world situations.
Now, more than ever, the industry has been looking for alternatives to R-22 to keep the huge existing base of R-22 equipment up and running. More reclamation has been one option. But at the same time, attention is being paid to a large number of HFC refrigerants that can be retrofitted into R-22 equipment.
Because no one HFC refrigerant can be retrofitted efficiently into the entire range of R-22 equipment, a wide and sometimes changing variety of HFCs have entered the market. The NEWS contacted a number of refrigerant manufacturers asking them to discuss some of their most popular HFCs for R-22 retrofits.
Two recent projects demonstrated successful retrofitting of HFC refrigerants into existing HCFC-22 systems. These projects, which were highlighted by Arkema, detail the processes with regard to HFC-427A in refrigeration and air conditioning applications.