Reviewing refrigeration standards

There is an urgent need to assess flammable refrigerants with changing technology

A standard is an agreed, repeatable way of doing something. Every product manufactured needs to follow a specific standard so that there is uniformity in it and manufacturers can be held accountable to maintain a certain quality.

With changing technology over the passage of time, there is always a need to keep improving the standards. For example, in electronic products there needs to be improvement in terms of energy efficiency and safety, along with having a low environmental footprint.

A standard document is made by forming a committee with the involvement of industry experts, academicians and civil society members.

The document does not have any legal binding until and unless mandated under law, but standard documents are made in many technical fields to evolve a common procedure and maintain the quality of the product. It is also made to have expert opinions in improving that particular product.

In the context of the refrigeration and air conditioning sector (RAC), the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) has a committee on refrigeration and air conditioning sectional committee which looks into refrigeration and air conditioning standards.

Currently, there is no existing standard document by the BIS which can address hydrocarbons that have a huge potential to replace hydrofluorocarbons (HFC). Negotiations are going on in the Montreal Protocol to phase out HFCs as they have a high Global warming potential (GWP).

The most commonly used refrigerants prior to 1930s were the natural ones—carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrocarbons. But due to the limitations of technology at that time, the challenges associated with natural refrigerants such as flammability, pressure and toxicity could not be overcome.

So, the chemical industry came up with high-ODP (Ozone depletion potential) and high-GWP chlorinated fluorocarbon refrigerants to replace HFCs. But advances in refrigeration technology over the past few decades have brought natural refrigerants back into the mainstream.

Need to introduce new standard

All refrigerants are dangerous if misused or applied incorrectly. In the refrigerant and air-conditioning industry, there is a need to rework on standards with developing technology and with more efficient alternatives which have a low GWP.

Natural refrigerants like hydrocarbons with low GWP can break the chemical treadmill that is being followed in the industry currently.

It is important for a developing country like India to develop its own version of a standard as it will help the local industry stay independent and take the decision to move in the direction in the best interest of the industry and the environment.

When doing this, it is advisable to follow an equivalent international standard or a widely acknowledged national or regional (for instance European) standard.

Global standards applicable to refrigeration and air-conditioning come mainly from the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), in addition to some of the regional and country-specific standards.

It is a common practice that international and regional standards are adopted at the regional and national levels. During this procedure, standards can be modified to suit the best local demands and conditions. Although the concerned IEC standard is under revision and India is a member of the ISO, we need to start the process of similar Indian standards as soon as possible as developing a India-specific standard requires significant technical resources, expertise and time.

Hydrocarbons have proved to be efficient refrigerant gases. They are currently being used in India, but the problem in scaling it up is the non-existence of a standard to address the concerns that are country specific.

The standard that is currently being followed by Godrej for hydrocarbon air conditioners in India is a European standard which limits the charge size of the air conditioner to 360 grams of hydrocarbon, thereby limiting the capacity of the air conditioner to under 1.5 tonnes.

To increase the capacity of the air conditioning, the charge size needs to be increased but without compromising on the safety of the equipment. So, a new standard needs to be designed for Indian conditions which can accommodate the country’s requirements of having a higher capacity and have use of the technology like leak detection sensors, safety valves and so on.

India has a range of unique concerns which the European standard does not address. One of the major issues is that India has very high temperatures in most regions and so needs higher-capacity air conditioning unlike European countries. Standards in Europe are based on room size which is a challenge to implement with practical problems like no regulation on installation.

The good news is that the concerns that exist have proven solutions with experiments conducted in labs which need to be discussed and the larger group of members made aware of.

To counter all these concerns having an Indian standard which can take the local requirements into account can be a game-changing solution. A standard needs to be designed which will address not only the safety concerns, but also stress on improving efficiency and providing scope for scaling up to accommodate requirements.

Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment is organising a workshop on “Addressing challenges in safety standards for hydrocarbon refrigerants in the RAC sector” on April 26‐27, 2016 to address some of the concerns and propose the way forward for creating a new standard.

Originally published in Down to Earth 

HFC Phase down negotiations to continue in Geneva

“The Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer” is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer. It was originally meant to phase out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion and not Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which do not cause any harm to ozone. But HFCs have very high global warming potential (GWP) and were introduced as replacement for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) which are harmful for the ozone layer. So, most parties believe that it is the responsibility of the Montreal Protocol to phase down or phase out the HFCs as well.

In the Meeting of the Parties (MOP 27) in Dubai last year, a contact group was established on the feasibility and ways of managing Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to negotiate the way forward. The outcome of the conference was termed as the Dubai pathway. A list of challenges was compiled and solutions provided for a few by the parties in Dubai.

The next meeting, which is the 37th Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG 37) of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from April 4-8, 2016. It is expected that the meeting will continue to mainly discuss feasibility and ways of managing HFCs in the contact group. The remaining challenges that have been identified and not discussed by parties in Dubai in the contact group are expected to be discussed and resolved by generating solutions on the feasibility of managing HFCs.

The four amendment proposals to the Montreal Protocol made by various countries including India are also expected to be deliberated in detail only after all the challenges are discussed. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the only non-governmental organisation to have come up with a proposal to phase out HFCs, has suggested an equitable division of HFCs in its proposal as a way out to break the deadlock between the issues that the current proposals cover. The four amendment proposals put forward by parties to be discussed are:

• Joint proposal by US, Canada and Mexico (North American proposal)
• Joint proposal by Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia (Federated States of), Palau, Philippines, Samoa and Solomon Islands (the Micronesian or Island States Proposal)
• Proposal submitted by India (Indian proposal)
• The European Union proposal (European proposal)

Also expected is a discussion on the report from the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) on alternatives to ozone depleting substances (ODS). The report submitted primarily focuses on the refrigeration and air conditioning sector. A second report covering all the other major remaining sectors is expected to be submitted by TEAP in the Vienna meeting in July which will also address comments received in Geneva.

All the challenges and concerns by the parties and the proposals are expected to be negotiated in the series of conferences by the end of this year. And if a consensus is achieved by all the 196 countries who are parties on phasing down HFC, there is a potential to reducing more than 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or up to 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.

Originally published in Down to Earth

Charge size matters

By Umang Jalan and Rakesh Kamal

An increase in maximum charge size limits for hydrocarbon refrigerants is needed for effective HFC phase down in India 

With the upcoming negotiations at the 37th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol from April 4 - 8, 2016 which will deal with the Dubai pathway to formulate a HFC phase down agreement, natural refrigerants have been gaining ground over high Global Warming Potential (GWP) Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC).

Natural refrigerants or the "gentle five" include ammonia, carbon dioxide, water, hydrocarbons and air. Perhaps, the most appropriate in an Indian context are hydrocarbon refrigerants. This is because these refrigerants have low GWP, are freely available and have high energy efficiency in high ambient temperature conditions. With the ever-growing need for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) in India, moving from HFCs to natural refrigerants provides an opportunity to mitigate emissions and avoid a warming of 0.5 degrees globally.

There are, however, safety concerns related to hydrocarbons because of relatively higher flammability than traditional HFC based refrigerants These concerns, however can now be dealt with new technologies that can be used to make such systems safe enough for wide scale implementation. The only major restriction is the lack of accommodating safety standards.

The amount of refrigerant needed to run a refrigeration cycle of a certain cooling capacity is known as “charge size”. According to reports, the maximum allowed “charge size” of hydrocarbons in RAC systems needs to be increased to 1 kg in order to accomplish large scale implementation of the technology. This amount would be sufficient for large scale implementation of the technologies in the most popular RAC sectors, i.e. medium (2-2.5 tonnes) scale domestic air conditioning. Industry estimates suggest that the domestic air-conditioning sector is expanding in India by 20 per cent per year and accounts for 35 per cent of global emissions from HFCs. More accommodating standards are therefore crucial to achieve an effective HFC phase down in India.

The only suppliers of hydrocarbon-based refrigerators and air conditioners in India currently comply with European standards. These standards mandate construction, design, testing for the safe use of flammable refrigerants. The standards however restrict the maximum charge size to 350-360 g of hydrocarbons. This corresponds to a maximum cooling capacity of around 1.5 tonnes. A change in the standards would allow Indian manufacturers to expand their production line to Hydrocarbon RAC systems with higher cooling capacity.

Currently, there are no standards available in India for the use of hydrocarbon-based refrigerants. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) takes its cues from the international community for the formulation of most of its standards. This poses a problem in standard development for hydrocarbons as no country allows more than a fraction of the requisite 1 kg maximum charge size limit. There are however leak detection, mechanical system shutdown and ventilation (in case of leaks) technologies available now that may make the case for increasing the charge size in most RAC applications. Currently, the EU, US and China are in the process of revisiting some of these standards in light of the technological improvements.

Perhaps, standards should necessitate safety features that will allow for universal use of the RAC systems without room size limits in Indian conditions. This is important, as oversight over implementation of such limits would be difficult in India. Developing an Indian standard to ensure safe wide scale implementation of hydrocarbon RAC systems is therefore important. Such a standard will help place the local refrigeration industry in a better position globally. It will also help in having an edge in the current negotiations as it will give confidence to the markets/industry that the Indian government is working on providing the framework for transition to natural refrigerants.

Originally published in Down to earth on 22-3-2016