Cold Link Africa January/February 2021 | Seite 12

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN

Cooling sector urged to look beyond Kigali targets with holistic sustainability approach

Experts speaking at a special event

held alongside the latest Meeting of the Parties of the Montreal Protocol highlights need to consider cooling across all aspects of government policy and finance .
Commitments outlined within the Kigali
Amendment to curb greenhouse gas
emissions will not be sufficient to realise
sustainable cooling without more holistic
national strategies , experts have warned .
Ksenia Petrichenko , economic affairs
officer with the UN ’ s Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific ,
said that international commitments
under the Kigali Amendment to cut the
consumption of HFCs in cooling products
was only one part of the wider issue of
sustainable cooling .
She said that a more holistic approach
to sustainability within cooling was
needed to address issues such as financial
support , government policy and other
development issues in countries all over
the world .
Any successful attempt to build a
nation-specific holistic plan would need
to understand the significance of cooling
to a range of different factors impacting
a country ’ s development , Ms Petrichenko
added .
She said , “ The institutional responsibility
in any given country is usually very
scattered – there is not one single
agency that is responsible for all aspects of cooling . So it really requires the engagement of diverse stakeholders and aligning different interests and agendas . Petrivhenko was speaking during a special event looking at the importance of National Cooling Action Plans that was hosted by a range of bodies and NGOs such as the UN Environment Programme and the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program ( K-CEP ). The webinar is part of a series of programmes to coincide with the 32 nd Meeting of the Parties of the Montreal Protocol .
A key focus of the event was the need to develop national action plans for cooling . These plans should be use of effective data and local expertise to account for the unique energy infrastructure and economic challenges to provide more sustainable cooling in an efficient and flexible means .
Brian Dean , energy efficiency and cooling lead for the Sustainable Energy for All ( SEforALL ) organisation , said that truly sustainable strategies to provide cooling were not always about providing appliances such as having an AC unit or refrigeration in every home .
Dean said that cooling actions plans was a concept intended to understand the core needs of a nation with regards to cooling as they relate to vital issues of comfort / safety , food / nutrition and
Creative Commons
There is not one single agency that is responsible for all aspects of cooling .
agricultural supply , as well as healthcare
important factors such as the demands
functions .
of healthcare and schools and offices
Efforts to draw up national cooling
to ensure the wellbeing of those using
plans was intended to set out a national
such buildings . This would also apply
roadmap for the policy , technology and
to understanding the scale of cooling
finance options required to meet the core
demand from the food supply chain to
cooling needs of the country in line with
address nutrition needs .
global net-zero carbon ambitions .
He said , “ We have over a billion
Mr Dean said a key question of
people that are at high risk due to a
each plan was to ensure there was
lack of access to cooling and another
sufficient cooling capacity in a country
two billion people that are at medium
to meet domestic needs and other
risk .”
CLA

Bitzer launches Refrigerant Report 21

Compressor manufacturer Bitzer ’ s latest

Refrigerant Report 21 , published at the end of September 2020 , includes new alternatives .

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Traditionally published biennially to coincide with the Chillventa exhibition ( and IKK before that ), Bitzer ’ s latest Refrigerant Report follows its predecessors in providing an independent and unbiased view of the current situation on both commercially available and development refrigerants .
In reality , as far as the report is concerned , very little has changed by addition since the last edition published in October 2018 . There are however a handful of new gases listed , and more significantly , a number of development refrigerants have fallen out of the report .
Amongst the new refrigerants listed is Honeywell ’ s non-flammable ( A1 ) R134a alternative blend R471A . This low pressure refrigerant blends the
HFOs R1234ze ( E ) and R1336mzz ( E ) ( another new refrigerant ) with the HFC R227ea and has a GWP of just 148 .
The addition of R1336mzz ( E ) gives R471A a GWP which is 50 % lower than Honeywell ’ s other low GWP R134a alternative R515B . However , while R515B was criticised for its 20 % lower volumetric refrigerating capacity than R134a , the capacity of R471A is said to be even lower .
The latest Refrigerant Report also includes Daikin ’ s lower GWP R404A replacement R468A . This A2L is said to be better than R404A in both medium temperature and low temperature conditions , yet has a GWP of just 146 . It blends the now common components R32 with R1234yf , but also adds the new HFO 1132a ( 1,1-difluoroethylene ).
The Refrigerant Report 21 can be downloaded by visiting the Bitzer website .
CLA
Bitzer ’ s Refrigerant Report 21 is available from the global website .
www . coldlinkafrica . co . za COLD LINK AFRICA • January / February 2021
Bitzer