FEATURE
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Future legislation on HCs –
who is responsible?
By John Ackermann
As hydrocarbons such as propane and isobutane become more common in local applications, there is
a concern about the regulations.
Hydrocarbon systems have high
energy performance and require
much less charge than HFCs for
similar cooling capacity.For safety
reasons, the refrigerant charge per
circuit is (currently) limited to 150g
to avoid possible “explosions” in the
event of all the charge leaking into
the surrounding environment and the
34
concentration level exceeding the
safe limit.
Although hydrocarbon refrigerants
offer many environmental
advantages, such systems require
special skills for the servicing,
maintenance and repair.
Hydrocarbon systems require specific
design considerations and the
selection of components that do not
pose the risk of explosions.
Having the refrigerant charge
limited to 150g, the required safety
compliance falls within that for
household appliances and outside
that of SANS 10147. Because of its
low environmental impact and high
performance levels, there was an
international call to increase the
maximum HC charge to 500g per
circuit as this will extend the benefits
to larger split air conditioners,
packaged commercial refrigeration
units and equipment for transport
refrigeration. (This regulation
regarding the proposed increase
to 500g was passed in April after
a recount of initially unfavourable
votes.)
A higher charge will most likely
result in more stringent compliance
with safety standards similar to all
other refrigerants. With South Africa
being solely reliant on imports of all
the available synthetic refrigerants,
a swing towards natural refrigerants
(hydrocarbons, ammonia, CO 2 )
offers a sustainable long-term
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
1
M
any bottle coolers seen in
shops, stores and restaurants
in South Africa are charged
with propane (R290) while many
domestic fridges are charged with
isobutane (R600a). Hydrocarbons
(HCs) have zero ozone depleting
potential (ODP) and a very low
global warming potential (GWP) i.e.
less than 4 GWP.
COLD LINK AFRICA • July/August 2019