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A primer on refrigerants and their impacts on local weather change.
Refrigerants are all over the place. They’re in our air conditioners and warmth pumps, in our fridges — even in our automobiles! But, regardless of this ubiquity, refrigerants are an oft-neglected topic inside electrification methods regardless of their main contribution to the greenhouse impact.
Maybe this disregard stems from the notion that refrigeration is both a secular or overly technical topic. Many sources are dense and chock-full of acronyms.
On this article, I’ll hopefully persuade you that refrigerants generally is a fascinating topic, and one which’s important to grasp if we’re severe about decarbonizing our buildings.
I’ll begin with some refrigerant fundamentals, then dive into a number of big-picture questions, together with: How has the refrigerant trade advanced over time? How frequent are leaks and why are these leaks problematic? And, lastly, how a lot do refrigerants contribute to constructing sector emissions?
What makes a (good) refrigerant?
Refrigerants are fluids that may be simply heated right into a vapor (evaporated) after which cooled again to a liquid (condensed) over and over. “Easily” means boiling at a really low temperature — we’re speaking colder than -25°F for a lot of frequent refrigerants.
You is perhaps asking — what’s the purpose of all this evaporating and condensing? In brief, it permits refrigerants to seize warmth and transport it from one place to a different. As an example, they absorb warmth from inside your fridge and dump it exterior.
Refrigerants may also be used to maneuver vitality for thermal storage. For warmth pump water heaters, refrigerants take up warmth from the encircling air and channel it right into a sizzling water storage tank. Refrigerants make the magic of warmth pumps potential — by transferring warmth quite than creating it, warmth pump methods can function at greater than 300% effectivity!
Ideally, refrigerants are additionally low- or non-flammable, low- or non-toxic, don’t deplete the ozone layer, and aren’t horrible for the local weather (extra on this later). There are hundreds of thousands of probably usable refrigerants, however solely a pair dozen that meet these standards.
Are refrigerant leaks frequent? In that case, why does it matter?
Refrigerant leaks are by no means factor. At finest, they’re a ache for constructing homeowners and a possible indication of a defective system. At worst, they’ll severely harm the ozone layer and contribute to world warming.
So, how a lot do refrigerant methods leak? This query is advanced — leakage varies based mostly on elements like gear sort, set up high quality, and upkeep (or lack thereof).
Grocery retailer fridges are among the many worst offenders, dropping 30% of their cost annually on common. Variable refrigerant circulate (VRF) methods are one other potential concern. Whereas much less vulnerable to leaks (estimated 6% annual loss), VRF items include massive volumes of refrigerant. So, even a small proportion leak equals numerous refrigerant within the environment.
An annual leakage price of 4% is typical for each warmth pumps and chillers. Whereas 4% may not sound like quite a bit, remember the fact that these items proceed to lose refrigerant over their decade-plus lifespan.
It’s not life like to fully stop leaks from taking place. That’s why it’s important to transform to lower-emission options. That manner, when leaks occur, they don’t contribute so considerably to world warming.
How a lot do refrigerants contribute to local weather change?
It relies upon.
Some refrigerants are dramatically worse than others when it comes to local weather harm. That harm is denoted by two metrics: Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) — i.e., how good a refrigerant is at tearing aside the ozone layer — and World Warming Potential (GWP), which measures a chemical’s skill to entice warmth within the environment. For GWP, carbon dioxide (CO2) is used because the baseline and has a GWP of 1.
Fortunately, ozone-depleting refrigerants have largely gotten the ax. In 1987, in an inspiring instance of nations coming collectively to unravel a human-caused downside with the local weather, world leaders agreed to ban halons and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) — the refrigerant teams with the highest ODP. Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), a gaggle of refrigerants with weaker ODP, had been lastly phased out as of 2020. Standard HCFCs like R22 can not be produced or imported to the U.S., however could also be used from recycled or stockpiled capability.
Okay, that was numerous acronyms. Any straightforward mnemonic is that refrigerants with “CFC” within the identify launch chlorine molecules that tear aside the ozone layer.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), refrigerants commercialized within the Nineties to interchange CFCs, are probably the most generally used refrigerants at this time. Whereas they don’t harm the ozone, HFCs usually have 1000+ GWP; probably the most potent amongst them exceed 10,000.
The graphic beneath shows some generally used HFCs and HCFCs, in addition to some low-carbon options.
There are billions of cooling home equipment internationally, and most use HFCs. Left unchecked, emissions from these gadgets alone might contribute 0.3–0.5°C of world warming by 2100.
Not-so-fun reality: Leaking one 12-oz can of R134a is like burning 110+ gallons of gasoline!
Happily, 197 international locations agreed to constrict HFC manufacturing by means of the 2016 Kigali Modification. Whereas this pact is a superb first step, implementation and enforcement on the country-level remains to be crucial. The U.S. is main by instance by means of the 2020 American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act.
Underneath AIM, the EPA will try to curtail HFC consumption by 85% over the following twelve years. There’s an essential milestone arising initially of 2025: new warmth pumps and air conditioners can not use refrigerants with GWP better than 750. Which means producers must discover a alternative for the ever-present R410A (which far exceeds that threshold with a GWP of two,088). It would probably get replaced by R454B (the blue bar within the graphic above) in lots of purposes.
In my subsequent article, I’ll focus on a few of the accessible low-GWP refrigerants. I’ll additionally clarify why the transition away from HFCs shall be far more durable than it was for CFCs.
Noah Gabriel is a Challenge Supervisor at New Buildings Institute (NBI). At NBI, Noah manages a number of initiatives involving cutting-edge warmth pump water heater (HPWH) analysis and deployment. Noah is a subject professional on HPWH load shifting and leads the demand response element of the Superior Water Heating Initiative.
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