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 

Negotiations on Montreal protocol one step closer to phasing out HFCs

Parties to the Montreal protocol negotiated in Geneva last week at the 37th Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), with the intention of phasing down Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

The Montreal Protocol was mainly intended to negotiate Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) that cause damage to the ozone layer. ODS have been replaced by HFCs, which have a very high global warming potential (GWP). All parties met in Dubai last year and formed a contact group to discuss the phasing down of HFCs.

The first day of the conference began on a positive note. It discussed the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) report and primarily focused on the refrigeration and air conditioning sector. In its report, TEAP presented 80 different alternatives which have the potential of replacing HFCs. After the presentation, the parties requested TEAP to come up with a matrix which could help them compare different alternatives to HFCs and were mainly disappointed that cost implications and economic feasibility did not reflect in the report which would help them make a decision. The parties also had an opportunity to meet TEAP informally later in the week. TEAP has announced that it will rework the report and submit it along with the second report which is due to be submitted in Vienna in July.

Discussion on exemption for High Ambient temperature and intellectual property rights took centre stage for the next two days of the conference. After many bilateral discussions in backrooms, the US submitted a reworked proposal on exemption for High Ambient temperature countries which would qualify 34 countries to get the exemption if the proposal is passed in Extraordinary MOP in Vienna. Safety standards also stood out as a major concern for many parties.

Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) hosted a side event on “Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) impediments to an HFC phase down”. Based on the findings of a patent analysis done by commissioning a study to Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), CSE made a revolutionary suggestion to exclude the mobile air conditioning (MAC) from amendment to solve the IPR issue. The MAC sector only contributes between 10 to 15 per cent of emissions or tonnage of refrigerant gas but the IPR issue, which is very specific to it, has been blocking negotiations to go forward. And as there are natural alternatives available in every sector other than the MAC, CSE expressed concerns that this might lead to a delay or a weak HFC amendment, which would be detrimental. CSE, in its presentation suggested that the MAC sector could be excluded from the negotiations now and could be reviewed in a technical review process later when a natural alternative became available.

The last day of the negotiations under the Montreal protocol in Geneva ran late into the night just like the previous meeting in Dubai. After the initial announcement in the plenary in the morning, the whole day was suspended and meetings were held in the backrooms. The parties finally met officially in the contact group at 9 pm but could not come to a consensus on the text to be discussed. They, however, have come up with a working draft of informal group consulting on solutions for challenges on funding issues and flexibility of implementation and solutions on funding challenges. These documents are expected to carry forward the discussion in Vienna.

Overall, in this conference, progress has been made on High Ambient temperature exemption, funding and flexibility of implementation. But it was a disappointment that parties could not find solutions to all the challenges identified and come to a consensus on text and are yet to start discussing the amendment proposals put forward by various groups. The plenary was suspended and not concluded, leaving scope for the contact group to meet again before the next plenary meeting in Vienna.

Originally published in Down to Earth

Negotiations pick pace as US proposes amendment text on exempted countries

Parties to the Montreal Protocol finally started discussing the different challenges they face on the third day of talks at the 37th Open-ended Working Group in Geneva. 

The discussion extended late into the night with an extra session and covered challenges like finance, intellectual property rights (IPR), flexibility, exemptions, relationship with Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFCs) phase-out, non-party trade provisions and legal aspects of moving HFCs from UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to the Montreal Protocol. 

Most of the challenges had been identified and discussed in the Dubai meeting last year and a fierce debate was expected as parties had enough time to work on and present their concerns and possible solutions. 

After a number of informal closed door sessions with some countries, the US put forward a proposal by submitting an amendment text on High Ambient Temperature (HAT) countries for negotiation. This has been a long-standing demand of Middle Eastern countries as available technology is not suitable for or has not been tested for HAT countries. The amendment text proposed by the US uses the Centre for Environmental Data Archival (CEDA) to derive the daily highest temperatures. It allows exemption for 34 countries, mostly from the Middle East and Africa. The list of countries was strategically read out instead of being provided along with the amendment text. One would assume that India would make it to the list, but the country was not considered for HAT exemption because it does not satisfy all the parameters as per the data set chosen carefully. Although there were many models to define High Ambient Temperatures, the data sets were chosen so as to include some specific countries. 

The amendment text allows an exemption for Parties (countries) where an average of at least two months per year over 10 consecutive years witness a peak monthly average temperature of above 35°C. Multi-split air conditioners for commercial and residential purposes, split ducted air conditioners (residential and commercial) and ducted commercial packaged (self-contained) air conditioners were include in the list of exempted equipment which can use HFCs for four additional years even after the phase-down in HAT countries. 

IPR is another major impediment and India repeated its stand by saying that all expenses incurred for IPR should be paid by the multilateral fund of the protocol. But experts felt that the discussion was not as exhaustive as expected as IPR has always been described as a major impediment from the time the negotiations began. Many delegates and participants were surprised that the discussion was cut short and want it to be bought back to the table or discussed in informal meetings.

Originally published in Down to Earth

Montreal Protocol talks begin on a positive note in Geneva

Negotiations over phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) began as part of Montreal Protocol in Geneva on a slow but positive note.

According to experts, who have been part of such talks for years, feel that all the Parties have more or less agreed to discuss the important issue of how to reduce the use of HFCs. It is an achievement as there was a time when the Parties did not even talk about it.

It was expected that the HFC phase down negotiations will continue to discuss the challenges identified in the previous meeting held in Dubai last year where a contact group was formed on the feasibility and ways of managing HFCs.

Important topics

The first half of day 1 during the plenary session witnessed the passage of the agenda for the week which included:

• Presentation and discussion of the report by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) over information on alternatives to ozone-depleting substances
• Resolving challenges by generating solutions on the feasibility of managing HFCs
• Discussing the amendment proposals submitted by Parties after the challenges were talked upon

After the presentation of the TEAP report on the proposed alternatives to HFCs, mainly in high ambient temperature countries, the Parties had various queries and comments.

Doubts on costs, feasibility

Most of the questions raised regarding the TEAP report were related to economic feasibility, cost implications, need for a user-friendly matrix to explain alternatives to HFCs, lack of energy efficiency as a parameter in choosing an alternative, assumptions on forecast and so on.

The TEAP will rework on the report based on the issues raised by the Parties and present a second report in the follow-up conference in Vienna in July.

Post lunch, many parties pointed out that the contact group should either discuss the challenges one by one in the order mentioned in Dubai or on a priority basis the next day.

Low-volume-consuming countries were specific about the need for capacity building and disposal mechanisms. India and China focused on issues such as intellectual property rights and employment opportunities. Columbia mentioned about the need for differential HFC phase down schedules between developing and developed nations. It also discussed about financial mechanisms as the reason for the success of the Protocol and the need to focus on strengths.

Most Parties agreed that the safety standards for refrigerant gases have gained prominence with natural refrigerants becoming a potential solution to escape the chain of chemical treadmill.

Some natural refrigerants have drawbacks such as toxicity, flammability and high pressure requirement to be favoured as replacements. With the advancement of technology, however, most past concerns have turned into opportunities.

Published Originally 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

MOP: Challenges galore, but solutions few

The Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP) on “Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer” is debating the switch over to cleaner alternatives even though talks on subsidies and time frame are still not clear.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were introduced as a substitute to Ozone-depleting Substances and do not harm the ozone layer. But as HFCs cause global warming, they have the potential to cause climate change if not properly managed.

The last two are important for the penetration and acceptability of the proposed new technology, which will be accepted, after HFCs are phased out.

Challenges or solutions: the way forward

The morning plenary session on Monday was open for only a brief period and discussed the previous day’s agenda. The contact group meeting started at 11.45 am on Monday with Saudi Arabia nominating a representative from China to be the co-convener.

The co-convener was clear that the only possible way forward was to hold a discussion on the challenges being faced by all the parties. He said, “(The) mandate is about feasibility and ways to manage HFCs. And feasibility includes issues related to challenges, so at this stage discussing challenges is more important than amendment itself.”

It was quoted by many developing countries that the challenges had been debated and discussed over years and concerns of the parties and solutions need to be discussed now.

Argentina, Brazil, Kuwait and India did not like the fact that the challenges were not being addressed in the midst of finding solutions.

Some of the major points touched upon by the A5 countries included technology, availability of alternatives to HFCs, funding mechanisms, exemptions under special circumstances, flexibility with scheduling phase down and capacity building requirements.

Many developing countries said they wanted to leapfrog the chemical treadmill followed in the developed countries and move to natural alternatives.

Manoj Kumar Singh, joint secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, emphasised on 20 challenges put forward in the Indian proposal for amendment to the Montreal Protocol and one by one mentioned the challenges being faced by the developing countries.

He said that these countries were being forced by the executive committee of the Montreal Protocol to switch over to a particular technology.

Only after the delegate from Argentina made a comment that it looked like developing countries had all the challenges and the developed countries had only the solutions, many developed countries raised the flag to talk about challenges out of embarrassment.

Most developed countries said their biggest challenges were not having trained technicians and having capacity-building programmes on new technologies.

For arriving at solutions, they repeated the standard answer of how the developing countries have the grace period before switching over to alternatives.

They also said funding would follow the same tested route through multi-lateral funds and the executive committee. However, the developing countries think this is not sufficient.

The day ended with the co-convener suggesting that they come up with a draft of the day’s proceedings, noting down the challenges and solutions for continuing discussion in a more structured way.

However, Argentina, Kuwait and India opposed it as these challenges had been discussed a number of times and no new solutions were proposed by the developed parties. They suggested that the co-convener should wait a day or two till all challenges and solutions were discussed.

Originally published in http://www.downtoearth.org.in/test/news/mop-challenges-galore-but-solutions-few-51678 on Tuesday 03 November  2015