Green Cooling Association Inc

R744 & HC use in Australasia

Overview1. Introductory remarks

Green Cooling Assn/Green Cooling Council The Ideological Divide - containment vs replacement? CPRS outline What does “environmentally friendly” mean?

2. Sectoral Overview Domestic Refrigeration Industrial Refrigeration Small Commercial Refrigeration Large Commercial Refrigeration Heatpumps Domestic Air Conditioning Large Commercial Air Conditioning Small Commercial Air Conditioning Mobile Air Conditioning

 3. Regional Highlights

Experience with HCs and R744 in SE Asia

Green Cooling Association Inc Formed in early 2009 following the collapse of the Green

Cooling Council Pty Ltd, an organisation established in 2003 to promote the interests of the natural refrigerants industry in Australia and with focus on improving energy efficiency as part of delivering climate friendly refrigerant solutions

Comprised of around 60 individuals with an interest in NH3,CO2 and HCs, most of whom work in companies in the RAC industry in Australia, with a growing international membership

Focused on political and information barriers as much as promoting technical solutions, with an active interest in Montreal Protocol and international climate negotiations

The Ideological Divide - containment vs replacement?

Fluorocarbon proponents in Australia working very hard to narrow the debate on refrigerant choice to arguments about measures to improve containment of fluorocarbons

Current licensing, accreditation and awareness efforts are represented as being a sufficient response

Significant effort is expended on obtaining ‘independent expert’ advice to downplay the potential of natural refrigerants to replace fluorocarbons

Fortunately, Government is not listening…

Refrigerants Australia Projection

Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) – Oz ETS outline

Wide coverage – HFCs included, assumes they will leak, can generate emissions credits if gas is recovered and destroyed

Timing – was to be July 2010, now delayed until 2011, assuming legislation passes Senate

Broad coverage HFCs included, complementary legislative and regulatory changes to cover HCFCs

Major changes to refrigerant recovery and destruction being developed

CPRS outline - continued Statistics Norway study by Katherine Loe Hansen of

key importance in influencing Government position Scheme will put a high cost on imports of high GWP

refrigerant using an ‘upstream’ approach – large entities will have to acquire emissions permits, smaller importers will be included through higher import levies to achieve same price as paid by large importers

Fluorolobby fighting tooth and nail to win exemption from coverage, very unlikely Govt will concede to their demands

Already having a large impact on selection of new systems, this is expected to become much greater when scheme takes effect

Importance of defending the claim to be “environmentally friendly”

Vital for naturals to defend competitive advantages

Highly deceptive claims becoming increasingly frequent around the world

Effective regulatory action taken in Australia in 2003

Sectoral OverviewDomestic RefrigerationIndustrial RefrigerationSmall Commercial RefrigerationLarge Commercial RefrigerationHeatpumpsDomestic Air ConditioningLarge Commercial Air ConditioningSmall Commercial Air ConditioningMobile Air Conditioning

PREPARED BY THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF REFRIGERATION, AIR CONDITIONING AND HEATING - 2006with funding from the Department of Environment and Water Resources

http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/ozone/publications/pubs/refrigerants-guide.pdf

About the case studiesMuch of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in Australia uses fluorocarbon refrigerants to facilitate the heat transfer process. Fluorocarbon refrigerants are synthetic chemicals which usually have a high global warming potential, and some still have the potential to cause damage to the ozone layer as well if released to the atmosphere.

Alternatives to these chemicals exist that can help to mitigate some of the environmental risks. Often referred to as 'natural' refrigerants because the substances also occur in nature, these alternatives include ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons.

These substances have been used as refrigerants for many years, however, they are now finding their way into applications where previously fluorocarbons were the preferred option.

This document has been put together to provide industry decision makers with more information on the potential of 'natural' refrigerants. It includes an overview of each of the alternatives, case studies on how they've been put to use in Australia, and pointers to some sources of further information.

The case studies are written in plain English, and attempt to give a realistic picture of how alternatives to fluorocarbon refrigerants were used in each case – the advantages they provided, the challenges that needed to be overcome, and the drivers behind each project.

Domestic RefrigerationImported brands including Vestfrost, Miele,

Liebherr and Bosch are long established, but occupy niche positions in high-end and off-grid markets

Electrolux – own the only domestic fridge manufacturing facility remaining in Australia, and have converted their own brand to Hychill Minus30 (R600a)

Electrolux plans to introduce HC to their many other brands in near future

Fisher and Paykel – have yet to announce a HC range

Industrial RefrigerationNatural refrigerants have an established history and are now in common use First CO2 system built in Bundaberg, Qld in 2002, started to gain acceptance

between 5-8 years ago, but in last 3-4 years has become the accepted best choice

Single stage and 2 stage NH3 Cascade CO2/NH3 – low temp and medium temp applications NH3 (small charge in plant room) and secondary (glycol) systems Organic brines – CO2 – Low Temp Spiral, Inline, Blast and Plate Freezers using CO2 and NH3 Companies delivering custom built systems include Grasso, Scantec, RefEng

RealCold, TriTech, Gordon Bros, Johnson Controls, eCO2 Technologies Examples –Major supermarket chains operating 8 large distribution centres

using NH3 glycol systems, fruit storage, and food processing facilities Order has just been placed for Australia’s first transcritical CO2 large food

processing facility, in QLD, for a desert and chocolate producer

Industrial Refrigeration

Energy and Cost Comparison of NH3 and HFC systems for large food processing facility

Small Commercial RefrigerationUnilever has distributed 100,000 hydrocarbon ice

cream chest freezers since 2007Other players in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods

sector have not yet embraced the shift to CO2 or HCs, and have objected to the Emissions Trading Scheme

Some manufacturers perceive industry resistance to hydrocarbons, and have yet to develop HC cabinets

There is experience with HCs in on farm milk vats, but in spite of excellent results, use has been limited

Large Commercial Refrigeration Bitzer - dominant compressor supplier Estimate there are over 60 supermarkets using CO2 in Australia &

NZNew Zealand At least 3 systems in the North Island Foodstuffs in the South Island built first in Nov 2006, and has

recently opened their sixth at Lincoln on the outskirts of Christchurch Another being opened in Timaru in 2 months time, and a further 2 are

planned for the first half of next yearAustralia Very strong growth is being experienced There are an estimated 50 stores in operation Orders for new systems are coming in fast Woolworths are pursuing CO2 systems aggressively Coles direction have recently undergone a major reorganisation, but

appear to remain committed to pursuing CO2

Large Commercial Refrigeration Debate within the industry continues on the optimal

system designs for the wide range of Australian/NZ conditions, and there is a steep learning curve, technical discussions at GL2010 should prove highly instructive.

Higher up front capital costs are well understood, but energy and refrigerant savings are such that even in the absence of the Australian ETS, payback periods are sufficiently short for the decision to adopt CO2 to be a ‘no brainer’.

ECO2 technologies – offering Enex transcritical systems designed for use in hot climates, have faced reluctance but expect to have orders placed soon. Australian contractors Frigrite helped install first CO2 cascade system in Thailand at Tesco Salaya in 2007

Awards for CO2 Supermarkets

Inaugural Coolworld Awards 2008“Refrigeration Installation of the Year”

Green Cooing Council Angle Vale Transcritical CO2

Premier’s Sustainability Award 2007Frigrite –Victoria

HeatpumpsSmall heatpumps suitable for domestic

applications are soon to be available from Sanyo in Australia

Medium sized heatpumps (10-60 kW) are available from eCO2 Technologies in partnership with Enex

Large heatpumps (130 kW) are being actively marketed by Mayekawa Australia

Large custom built 2 stage heatpump systems are available from companies including Grasso, Mayekawa/Mycom and Sabroe

Heatpumps Enex/eCO2

Mayekawa

Domestic Air Conditioning Benson Air Conditioning, from

Perth, WA, has a wide range of domestic to small commercial systems being marketed nationwide using HyChill “Minus??” R290

Fujin (Recom Engineering, WA) is actively developing a range of R290 splits and combined hot water units, expected to be available soon

Active R&D by another company is expected to deliver an innovative super efficient range to market in ≈ 6 months

Small Commercial Air ConditioningA problematic sector for naturalsSmall ammonia chillers to pump cold

water have been used in a few instances, but this has potential to become a more common approach

Limited examples of retrofit with HCs believed to exist

Active R&D in applying HCs is ongoing

Large Commercial Air ConditioningAmmonia Chillers using chilled water are well

provenCompact systems with minimum charge, are

available in a range of sizesDemonstrated to provide highly attractive

Energy Efficiency and short pay back period on capital outlay

Grasso, Johnson Controls and Bitzer are main equipment suppliers and are actively marketing these solutions to building owners, managers and designers

Mobile Air Conditioning Hydrocarbon Refrigerants in Motor Vehicle AC

Systems – The Australian Story

First batch of Australian made R12/R134a replacement of 50kg produced by LPG Management Technology for Esanty Refrigerants in 1990.

Since that date over 200 tonnes of HC has been sold in Australia to the MAC re-gas market.

HyChill is one of 3 suppliers to the market in Australia, along with Technochem and ERG – so the total is larger than this number.

As 200 tonnes of HC replaces 600 tonnes of R134a, this has avoided over 800,000,000 Kg of CO2 emissions.

Current estimate of annual sales is around 30-35 tonnes.

Australian use of HCs in MVACS (cont.) At least one small scale vehicle manufacturer uses HyChill refrigerants

in their production. Another manufacturer is seriously considering the issue because of the excellent results being achieved by one of their distributors who converts the systems to HC prior to delivery.

A number of Original Equipment Manufacturer distributors are removing R134a and replacing it with HC prior to delivery of new vehicles.

A number of mining operators have a policy that HFC’s and HCFC’s are prohibited from their site in all vehicles and all MUST be changed to HC before being brought into service. Why? Because of the environmental impact of the gas and the oil Improved performance in extreme conditions (there are many examples of

R134a approaching critical temperature leading to equipment failure in high ambient temperature environments - a significant cost issue!)

because their (mandatory) risk assessments show there is no significant additional safety risk, they are of the view that HC and mineral oil are a lower overall risk than HFC and PAG oil.

Mining companies have the expertise in house to do their own risk assessments !

Australian use of HCs in MVACS – the evidence of this sidelined solution?

An October 2008 report* prepared for the Australian Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts revealed that 5.5% of refrigerant recovered from the MVAC sector was HC. Given that the shops that use HC’s regularly know that there is no need to recover HC’s, it seems clear that the actual percentage of vehicles on the road using HC’s is somewhat higher than this.

Collated industry data indicates that approximately 10% to 15% of vehicles on the road use HC’s.

Sales are greatest in rural servicing centres, reflecting use in agricultural equipment.

Many TAFE (Technical and Further Education) colleges in Australia now teach the safe uses of HC’s in MAC’s as part of their normal training for tradesmen/apprentices.

Clearly, there is a pressing need for a further independent assessment of the extent of use of HCs in Australia, and around the world, to demonstrate that HCs are a viable option for more widespread use.

*Energy Strategies, “ODS and SGGs in Australia - A study of end uses, emissions and opportunities for reclamation”, October 2008,

for the Australian Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA)

Australian use of HCs in MVACS – Safety concerns?

The only documented incidents in Australia are simply the result of failure to comply with normal workshop safety practices.

The highlighting of these incidents by the fluorolobby shows how disingenuous their concerns about safety really are, as there are also documented reports of workshop incidents with MVAC’s using HFC’s where normal workshop safety practices were not followed.

The paper titled “Usage and risk of hydrocarbon refrigerants in motor cars for Australia and the United States” published in the International Journal of Refrigeration 27(2004) 339–345 is a peer reviewed document that shows the risk associated with the use of HC’s in MVAC’s has been overstated by those who have previously done risk assessments.

Those who continue to call for further analysis and studies studiously ignore this paper and all the other real world evidence when they continue to call for further risk assessments. Organizations such as the USEPA are simply acting as the “pawns” of the FC lobby in continuing their objections to HC’s in MVAC’s.

The majority of risk assessments that this paper thoroughly refutes were commissioned by fluorolobby vested interests for the explicit purpose of conducting negative marketing campaigns, and to influence OEM’s and regulators, and not as objective attempts to assess the suitability of HC’s as refrigerants in MVAC’s.

Australian HC Refrigerant Suppliers

Regional HighlightsExperience with HCs in SE Asia

Increasingly significant level of retrofitting of existing systems with hydrocarbon is taking place in many countries, including Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore

Companies supplying include Chatcooling, RedTek Thailand, Coolman Group, Nat Energy Singapore, Hychill Fueltreat Malaysia, Pertamina and Energy Resources Group

Wide range of systems involved, impressive energy efficiency gains being delivered and driving wider use

APL Asia Co., Ltd. is promoting the use of Environmentally Friendly, Energy Efficient REDTEK Hydrocarbon Refrigerant from USA in an attempt to reduce the use of CFC, HFC and HCFC refrigerant gases, which are causing irreparable damage to the environment.

Our company is based in Thailand and distributes REDTEK refrigerant throughout Asia, to companies with a similar philosophy to ours. Our main activities are based in Thailand and involve the replacement of mainly R22 with REDTEK 22a hydrocarbon refrigerant, to companies who want to 1) use environmentally friendly products to reduce damage to our environment and 2) reduce running costs by reducing the use of electricity, which results in a reduction in the quantity of electricity that needs generating and therefore again helps reduce gas emissions into the environment.

As HC gas is combustible, under certain conditions, we survey our customer facilities to ensure we will not causing an unsafe condition. We follow the ACRIB guidelines mainly for volume of refrigerant in a particular area, if refrigerant was released from an A/C system. We will not install if we have any doubts concerning safety.

All A/C systems converted are labeled to indicate the presence of hydrocarbon refrigerant. We also provide training to our customer’s staff on the safe use and charging procedure for hydrocarbon refrigerant. The MSDS is supplied to every customer, approval is usually obtained from their head office and we do not have many problems in convincing customers to change to an environmentally acceptable alternative, especially when they witness the significant energy saving they can obtain.

The advantage with Hydrocarbon Refrigerant is that it is not a “retrofit” product, it is a drop in replacement with no modification or replacement of components, lubricating oil etc. required.

All refrigerant removed from air conditioning systems is recovered, cleaned, dried and reused as there is not a refrigerant destruction facility in Thailand. Our intention is to reduce the quantity of new refrigerant manufactured.

Our customers, for refrigerant replacement, are mainly factories where they have dedicated staff for maintenance of air conditioning systems and we can be confident on safety issues.

Following are some examples of HC replacement projects showing the saving in power we achieve, these results are for split type, chillers (reciprocating and screw compressors), package units, at the moment we are converting several factories each month and we see our workload increasing as the world says goodbye to harmful chemical refrigerants :

Hydrocarbon retrofits by Redtek Thailand

NAT ENERGY RESOURCES PRIVATE LIMITEDNAT ENERGY RESOURCES PRIVATE LIMITED

was incorporated in Singapore in February 2005. Our Company was set up primarily to propagate the application of Hydrocarbon Technology onto all buildings and automobiles with air-conditioning systems.

Our aim is to reduce energy costs for all our customers and at the same time improve the environment by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. As an ecofriendly Company, we are duty-bound to replace the high GWP (Global Warming Potential) causing HFC refrigerants with the almost zero GWP hydrocarbon refrigerant.

Coolman Group HC Marketing

New HC production facility in development stage - Thailand

Final Government approvals imminent

Seeking Investment Capital

Further information available to interested parties

http://www.ceerd.net

Where will we be in another 15 years..? "The present situation, when CFCs and in a little longer perspective the HCFCs are being banned by international agreement, it does not seem very logical to try to replace them by another family of related halocarbons, the HFCs, equally foreign to nature. In any case it must obviously be much preferable to use natural compounds, which are already circulating in quantity in the biosphere and are known to be harmless." -Professor Gustav Lorentzen (Norway, 1994)

Greenpeace Cartoon – 1994

2009

It’s up to every one of us!

Thanks for your attention…

(PS -See you at the Gustav Lorentzen 2010 Conference in Sydney?)

www.greencooling.org

For Further Information: Australian Companies Benson Air Conditioning (HC split systems) http://www.bensonairconditioning.com.au/  Bitzer (Equipment manufacturer) http://www.bitzer.com.au  CA Group Services (Ammonia systems) http://cagroupservices.com.au/ Coolquip (West Australia, refrigeration services) http://www.coolquip.com.au eCO2 Technologies (CO2 & HC system engineers and designers) http://www.eco2technologies.com.au  Electrolux Australia (HC domestic fridge manufacturer) http://www.electrolux.com.au  Energy Resources Group (HC refrigerant distributor and services) http://www.erg1000.com  Frigrite (Refrigeration contractors & engineers) http://www.frigrite.com.au

GEA Refrigeration Components http://www.gearefrigeration.com  Greenfreeze (HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.greenfreeze.com.au/

Hychill Refrigerants (HC refrigerant manufacturer) http://www.hychill.com.au/ Scantec Refrigeration(Ammonia & CO2 system engineers) http://www.scantec.com.au Mayekawa Australia (Ammonia & CO2 equipment manufacturer) http://www.mayekawa.com (mayekawa.com.au is coming soon) Minus40 (Natural refrigerant engineers & designers) http://www.minus40.com.au Refrigeration Engineering (RAC services, Fujin distributor) http://www.refeng.com.au   Technochem Australia (HC refrigerant manufacturer) http://www.technochem.com.au/ & http://www.technochem.com TriTech NSW (Ammonia system engineers and designers) http://www.tritechnsw.com.au

South East Asian Companies Automation Co.Ltd. (Thailand HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.novemeng.com  Centre for Energy Environment Research & Development - CEERD (Thai HC production project) http://www.ceerd.net  ChatCooling (Thailand HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.chatcooling.com  Coolman Group (Thailand HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.coolmangroup.com ECI International (Thailand refrigeration system engineers) www.eci-inter.co.th  Hychill Malaysia (HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.fueltreatmalaysia.com Hychill China (HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.hychill.com.cn  Nat Energy Resources Singapore (HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.nat-energy.com.sg/ Pertamina Musicool (HC refrigerant manufacturer) http://www.pertamina.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2939&Itemid=564 Redtek Thailand (HC refrigerant distributor) http://www.redtekthailand.com

Environmental NGOs Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/international Environmental Investigation Agency - EIA http://www.eia-international.org Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development IGSD http://www.igsd.org  

Montreal Protocol Visit this page for information on Montreal Protocol documents and how to participate – http://www.unep.fr/ozone  

Useful references – available at http://www.greencooling.org  Pedersen, Per Henrik, Potent Greenhouse Gases - Ways of Reducing Consumption and Emission of HFCs, PFCs and SF6, Tema Nord 2007:556. Nordic Council of Ministers, 2007. Kathrine Loe Hansen, Emissions from consumption of HFCs, PFCs and SF6 in Norway, Statistics Norway, 2007. AIRAH, Natural Refrigerants Case Studies, 2006. http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/ozone/publications/pubs/refrigerants-guide.pdf