UPDATE: German UBA report showing the way to phase out f-gases

With the report “Fluorierte Treibhausgase vermeiden - Wege zum Ausstieg", the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) intends to clarify the environmental and climate impact of f-gases, outline available alternatives and deliver a status report for decision makers at the national, European and international level. The English version of the report “Avoiding Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases – Prospects for Phasing Out” is now available for download. It was presented by UBA during a panel discussion in Brussels on 15 June. Over 50 participants discussed with UBA president Jochen Flasbarth and representatives from the European Parliament and the European Commission, as well as Greenpeace and EPEE (European Partnership for Energy and the Environment), if and how natural refrigerants can be an alternative for all applications.

“It is important to know what you want to phase in when you want to phase out,” Flasbarth stated.

Phase down vs. phase out of F-Gases

One of the main discussion topics was the question if F-Gases should be phased down or phased out, which lead to the point being made that in fact every phase-down is in the end also a phase-out, the implementation just takes longer.

Andrea Voigt from EPEE expressed her strong concern about the report. She mentioned natural refrigerants as some of the alternative options, but sees the report as a missed opportunity to reduce emissions. She explained that it jumps to the conclusion that phase out will solve everything. In her opinion a phase-out would only prevent innovation.

This argument was heavily disputed by a majority in the audience stating that a phase-out forces governments and companies to invest in research and development to search for better solutions. Therefore it rather increases innovations as well as giving smaller companies that have already developed solutions a chance.

When energy efficiency and safety were mentioned as a concern when switching to natural alternatives, Mr Flasbarth told the audience about his own experience driving the UBA vehicle equipped with a CO₂ Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) for several years. He confirmed that it was not less efficient while also being reliable and safe. Mr Mate, Greenpeace, supported this argument by stating that 30 million cars already use hydrocarbons in MAC applications in Australia, China and the US. He added that the proposed synthetic refrigerant HFC-1234yf is less efficient and much more expensive than hydrocarbons or even R134a.

Ms Voigt and Member of the European Parliament Philip Owen mentioned the problem of costs several times. In response Mr Meineke from the BMU concluded that emission reduction targets are set and that compared to other areas where emissions could be saved, the F-Gases are the easiest to change and can achieve good results. There are valuable solutions already on the market and we should not be hesitant about "details" regarding costs, in other words the possible additional costs are short-term and relatively low, Mr Meineke added.

Refrigeration racks

In Europe, natural refrigerants are gaining ground in supermarket refrigeration. By 2009, several hundreds of CO₂ cascade systems, around 300 CO₂ direct evaporation systems, about 80 systems with ammonia, 20 with propene, and 4 with propane have been installed in supermarkets. Thanks to the decision of two discount chains to use more or even exclusively natural refrigerants in new installations, the number of such as considerably risen over the last few years.

Conclusions: systems based on natural refrigerants are well established and allow for great emissions reductions as refrigeration racks are the most important emitters of f-gases in the commercial cooling sector. The layout of systems using natural refrigerants should be integrated in the planning of new buildings, for older buildings a retrofit should be considered.

For the moment, systems with natural refrigerants are still more expensive then comparable HFC-based systems, but experts expect a levelling out of prices in the near future. In any case, it is not undisputed that HFC-based systems are cheaper as increasingly strict regulations impose ever higher tightness of systems, necessitating expensive investments and maintenance.

Transport refrigeration

Prototypes of CO₂ refrigeration systems for refrigerated transporters have already been developed and tested, however their energy efficiency has to still be further improved. Systems based on other natural refrigerants are being researched. In case of flammable refrigerants, specific safety measures have to be considered. The use of CO₂ in refrigerated transporters delivering fresh goods has been deployed in Sweden so far, a life-cycle assessment has yet to be carried out. But these new technologies generate higher costs in the installation and need political support for a successful market introduction.

CO₂ has been tested as refrigerant in refrigerated containers, with some technical and logistical challenges remaining to be solved. The fact that refrigerated containers are mostly manufactured in China and travel around the world, calls for international political coordination and support.

Domestic heat pumps

CO₂ water heater heat pumps are technologically mature and show higher energy performance than comparable HFC-based models.

Conclusion: for low power heat pumps of up to 20 kW heat pumps based on natural refrigerants are available and the use of HFCs can be renounced without economic drawback.

Industrial heat pumps

Industrial heat pumps using CO₂ as refrigerant do not only allow substituting HFCs but show also a higher energy performance. This allows to amortise the higher initial costs through lower running costs.

Industrial refrigeration

Only a few years ago, R22 and ammonia were the standard refrigerants in industrial refrigeration in the food industry. However, since the phase-out of R22 also CO₂ refrigerant is gaining ground especially for very low temperatures. Also ammonia/CO₂ systems have already proven their economic viability and are state-of-the-art.

Conclusion: the use of f-gases in the food industry is not negligible and not necessary due to their low efficiency in this application.

Cold storage

According to data published by the German cold storage and logistics association VDKL in 2009, over 80% of refrigeration plants are cooled with ammonia, about 16% are HFC-based, while only 2% use CO₂ and less than 1% R22. Ammonia is clearly the standard refrigerant, but recently also some ammonia/CO₂ systems have been installed and could without much technological expense be also adopted for systems of 500 kW and below. The need for careful advance planning due to safety measures and necessary authorisation as well as higher investment costs and an insufficient service infrastructure have so far impeded the wide uptake of this technology.

Also for smaller cold stores (below 50,000 m3) with refrigeration systems below 500 kW, installations with ammonia or ammonia/CO₂ are technically feasible, but not yet widely deployed due to higher investment costs. The costs however can be recuperated through the superior energy efficiency of these systems - a fact that is not yet taken into account sufficiently.

Commercial cooling systems

Several manufacturers opt for hydrocarbons and/or CO₂ to replace fluorinated gases in these systems. The use of hydrocarbons in this application is already a well-established technology. Thousands of installations worldwide already use natural refrigerants, partially thanks to voluntary commitments of big corporations such as Coca Cola or Unilever to avoid the use of f-gases.

The commercialisation of ice-cream freezers using CO₂ as refrigerant started in 2006. Their market share, however, remains small. Bottle coolers and freezers based on R744 are also available but still show a price premium over HFC and hydrocarbons based equipment.

Conclusion: f-gases can be replaced in commercial cooling equipment with either hydrocarbons or CO₂.

Air-conditioning of rooms and buildings

CO₂ is not yet established as a refrigerant in room air-conditioning.

Conclusion

“The German and European businesses that have developed and marketed energy-efficient systems without fluorinated greenhouse gases represent one crucial first step. It is now up to grocery retailers and public transport operators to use these climate-friendly systems on a large scale”, says UBA president Jochen Flasbarth.