Refrigerant emissions and leakage prevention across Europe – Results from the RealSkillsEurope project

Global emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases 2005–2050 with abatement potentials and costs

“…Due to the relatively high cost of HFO-1234yf compared to HFC-134a Carvalho et al, 2014;USEPA, 2013;Purohit et al, 2016) and extensive import bans and restrictions on international trade with used cars (UNEP, 2011b;Macias et al, 2013), we consider it unlikely that new MAC technology will be taken up in the absence of directed regulations or spread globally through export of used cars from regions with regulations in place.…”

“…It does not address uncertainty in the projections of activity drivers as these have been taken from external sources (IEA/OECD, 2012; Capros et al, 2013). Uncertainty ranges presented in Table S10 are derived from default ranges suggested in the IPCC guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 2006) and other published literature (IPCC, 2000; Garg et al, 2006;Gschrey et al, 2011;Schwartz et al, 2011;McCulloch and Lindley, 2007;Koronaki et al, 2012). As mentioned in the previous section, in the baseline HFCs are expected to contribute to nearly 90 % of global F-gas emissions in 2050.…”

An investigation of refrigerant leakage in commercial refrigeration

“…In fact, all refrigeration systems have the potential to leak, because pressures in the system are usually many times higher than atmospheric . Refrigerant loss has been attributed to a range of factors Koronaki et al, 2012), for example: a) Gradual leakage through components over long periods of time before the leak is detected b) Catastrophic or physical damage resulting in large refrigerant losses over a short period of time c) Operation of pressure relief devices d) Small losses during routine maintenance, repair and/or recovery of refrigerant A number of authors have reported on the reasons why refrigeration systems continue to leak. Following an extensive survey of professionals, ETSU (1997) identified the 6 most common leakage sites as flare joints, shaft seals, other mechanical joints, signal lines/small bore lines, valves/glands, and vibration (chaffing).…”

“…Many refrigerants used in RACHP (refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump) systems are F-gases (Bauer et al, 2015). Leakage of refrigerant gases from these systems impacts the environment in two ways (Koronaki et al, 2012). Firstly there is a direct effect due to the global warming potential (GWP) of the leaked gas, and secondly, there is an indirect effect due to the decreased efficiency of the refrigeration system (due to the loss of charge) which leads to increased energy consumption .…”

“…Annual leak rate can be an average of 11% (Koronaki et al, 2012) and up to 30% in some cases (Beshr et al, 2015). Refrigerant leakage can also have a significant financial impact for the user depending on how quickly the leak is found and repaired (ETSU, 1997 andKoronaki et al, 2012).…”