Organizers: UNEP OzonAction
Description: Standards for low-GWP refrigerants: prospects and challenges
Regulatory efforts to reduce global warming are requiring that the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry evaluate lower-GWP refrigerants as alternatives to the HFC refrigerants used today in the majority of HVACR applications. Alternative refrigerants classified as A2L (mildly flammable) or A3 (flammable), according to ASHRAE Standard 34, are certainly going to shape the future of refrigeration and air-conditioning applications in the next decades.
The flammability and safety of these low-GWP alternative refrigerants limit their applicability at present due to absence of updated standards and codes that address the needs for sound deployment of those alternatives in different applications. Differences in safety standards among regions of the world, differences in HVACR applications, and the diversity of relevant regulatory instruments for environmental protection create uncertainty and complexity for HVACR manufacturers who wish to implement these refrigerants. The speed of standards review and update is another challenge in comparison with the need to take action and phase-out ODS, mainly HCFC, while reducing avoiding high-GWP options.
This session will discuss ongoing efforts to address the update of relevant standards specifying the use of alternative refrigerants in refrigeration and air-conditioning applications with examples from different regions.
For more information contact:
Anne-Maria Fenner
Phone: +33144371454
E-mail: anne.fenner@unep.org
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