Recently, the Climate and Clean Air Alliance held a symposium on sustainable technologies for air conditioning at the same time as the 29th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, calling on global air-conditioner manufacturers to adopt sustainable technology solutions to achieve the HFCs reduction targets .
With the availability of natural refrigerants to replace fluorinated gases in HVAC and refrigeration industries, CCAC held a symposium on sustainable technologies for air conditioning that will be used by the global air conditioning industry to address HFCs with high greenhouse gas potential (GWP) Increasing volume provides a solution.
At present, HFCs are widely used in the global air conditioning industry and such substances will be reduced under the framework of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Last month, the Kigali Amendment reached the conditions for entry into force, prompting the air-conditioning industry Use sustainable alternative technologies.
There is no doubt that there is an urgent need to quickly identify and deploy environmentally-friendly solutions to provide Parties with the tools to meet their obligations under the Kigali amendment, while at the same time meeting the global need for air-conditioning The rapidly growing demand, "said Helena Molin Valdes, director of the CCAC secretariat.
The Chinese government supports the more efficient use of propane (R290) as an alternative to HFC refrigerants in the air-conditioning sector. Ole Nielsen, Director of the UNIDO Montreal Protocol, on behalf of the Chinese government, introduced the use of hydrocarbon technology Of the production line transformation.He said that R290 'despite the existence of security issues, but technically very potential.'
China is the world's largest home air conditioner manufacturing base, with an annual output of more than 100 million units of home air conditioners with a market share of 85% .Chang Chaco CEO Marc Chasserot believes that if China uses propane, R290 will significantly enhance the market share of natural refrigerants.
China and India already have R290 room air conditioners in production, but the market for R290 air conditioners is slow to grow, Marc Chasserot said.
According to Shecco, about 1,300 R290 split air conditioners are currently installed in China while more than 400,000 R290 air conditioners are in operation in India.
"Effective policy support, adoption of safety regulations and stronger industry commitments are necessary to completely unlock the market potential of R290 room air conditioners," said Marc Chasserot.
In Europe, some air conditioners also use the R290. Marc Chasserot cites Midea German companies and Italian manufacturer Delonghi as examples, both of which sell mobile air conditioners with propane refrigerant in Europe.
German manufacturer Frigoteam has been using hydrocarbon refrigerants as refrigerants in its chillers since 2011. Gerrit Kerkenpass, head of the company, said that since the company started using HC as a refrigerant, 111 units have been installed Hydrocarbon water chiller.
'There have been no major leaks so far and no accidents have occurred,' says Gerken Kerkenpass.
Frigoteam chillers are installed in various applications, including pharmaceutical plants, electronics stores and fruit storage warehouses.
While German and Chinese companies tend to use hydrocarbon refrigerants as an alternative technology, Canadian company Carnot Refrigeration has tried to develop alternative CO2 technologies.This year, the company installed a demonstration project at the German embassy in Ottawa, Canada, using CO2 Transcritical system.
Professor Stefan Elbel, Associate Director of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believes CO2 is considered as the ultimate refrigerant option in many applications and explains how transcritical CO2 can be used in automotive air conditioning and heat pump systems.
He cited an example from Japan's Sankei Co., which delivered the first mass-produced CO2 automotive air-conditioning systems in 2017. In his view, the revolution in electric vehicles is a classic example of accelerating these technological developments. "Electric Automotive heat pump systems could create a breakthrough for CO2 technology. '