Low Global Warming Potential Refrigeration
Zero Carbon Engineering has experience of working in both FMCG and retail markets both with large industrial refrigeration and smaller retail refrigeration.
Refrigeration as we know it now came into being in 1834 when Jacob Perkins built the first ammonia based working vapor-compression refrigeration system in the world. Ammonia developed as the most common industrial refrigerant.
In 1930 Frigidaire developed the first electrically powered domestic refrigerator using FREON. A range of these gases developed and became commonly used in both domestic and industrial equipment (R11 - CCl3F, R12 - CCl2F2 called CFC’s and R21 - CHCl2F, R22 – CHClF2 called HCFC’s).
In the late 1970’s it was noted that holes in the ozone layers over the earth's poles were forming allowing the passage of ultraviolet light. This gave rise to an increase in skin cancer, sunburn, and cataracts in the human population and an adverse effect on plants and animals.
Under the Montreal Protocol in 1987, CFCs, HCFC’s, and other ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out to the point in 2010 when it was illegal to either manufacture or use them. Since then the levels of ozone in the atmosphere have stabilised and started to recover,
Whilst this was happening, industry started to use HFC’s – generally found as blends such as R134a (GWP 1430), R404 (GWP 3922) and R410 (GWP 2088), However all these gases although not ozone depleting have a significant global warming potential.
In 2014 under EU F-Gas regulations and the Montreal Agreement (Kigali 2016) agreements have been put in place to phase out high GWP HFC’s and replace them with refrigerants with lower global warming potential. In Europe there is a ban in the use of refrigerants in new equipment with a GWP>2,500 post 2020 and a production phase down between now and 2030 of 79% measured as carbon equivalence.
The implications of this have been the development of either natural low GWP refrigerants (ammonia, CO2, Hydrocarbon) or low GWP refrigerants based on HFO (e.g. 1234YF or CH2=CFCF3, GWP4 & a replacement for R134a) and a GWP or HFO/HFC blends (e.g. R448/R449). Some HFC gases have increased in excess of ten-fold in price during 2017-2018.
Most domestic fridges now use hydrocarbons (e.g. Butane), retail refrigeration is either CO2, Hydrocarbon in new equipment or in older equipment using HFO/HFC as an alternative to HFC’s. Industrial refrigeration remains largely ammonia based.
The other big change in refrigeration are changes to reduce refrigeration load (e.g. better insulation, addition of doors, addition of aerofoils in air curtains or improving the efficiency of the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle (e.g. more efficient compressors, more efficient condensers and evaporators)).