ASSOCIATIONS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
SAIRAC Dreosti Memorial
Lectures scheduled for June
By Grant Laidlaw of SAIRAC
The prestigious SAIRAC Dreosti Memorial Lecture events will take place in June at four venues across the
country, where a special international guest speaker will look at using R290 in refrigeration applications.
A
t the inaugural South African
Institute of Refrigeration and Air
Conditioning (SAIRAC) meeting
held in Cape Town on 17 July 1951,
Dr Dreosti was elected the founding
president of the association.
Dr Dreosti published over 300 papers
in the fields of refrigeration, dehydration,
canning, and so forth. He made a lasting
and valuable impact on humanity and
indeed made the world a better place.
SAIRAC launched the Dreosti Memorial
Lecture in 1998, a year after Dr Dreosti’s
death in 1997. The Dreosti lecture
exemplifies the objectives of SAIRAC to
promote the unrestricted dissemination of
knowledge and information.
2019 LECTURE – A RELEVANT TOPIC
SAIRAC is pleased to announce the 2019
SAIRAC Dreosti Memorial Lecture.
SAIRAC National Council picked up
on cues from its international colleagues
when it came to selecting the topic
for the year. Following on to the very
successful FRIGAIR Expo and the first-
ever ATMOsphere networking event
(in association with shecco) that took
place during the show, it became
apparent that the time has come for
natural refrigerants to take centre stage
in global efforts to reduce the climate
impact of HEVAC&R technologies. As
countries begin to implement the Kigali
Amendment to the Montreal Protocol,
which aims to phase down HFCs
worldwide, the topic is more relevant
than ever.
To this end, the theme of natural
refrigerants was chosen, with particular
focus on propane (R290).
SAIRAC’s current president, Marius
La Grange, says: “Few would argue
against an urgent reduction of whatever
contributes towards global warming. With
much relevant, factual evidence of a
global increase in average temperatures,
the causes of this trend need to be
addressed.”
Many synthetic refrigerants are a major
contributing factor towards stratospheric
ozone depletion potential (ODP) in
some cases, as well as having a major
global warming potential (GWP) when
they escape from a refrigeration or air-
conditioning system. Some systems might
be ‘greener’ in terms of energy consumed
to operate, but with a refrigerant that is
harmful to the environment, or vice versa.
How does one evaluate each solution
and compare with others?
To aid the evaluation, a standardised
method of calculation was developed
to calculate the potential impact of a
system at the design stage. This is known
as the total equivalent warming impact
(TEWI) index.
“Consider the huge numbers of
applications making use of R22 currently,”
says La Grange. “Is it feasible to replace
all these applications with CO 2 as
refrigerant? It is possible, but economical
and practical factors need to be
considered.”
CO 2 (R744) is an alternative and a
very good one at that. It does require
a high level of skill to build the systems
and operate safely. Being an alternative,
it means replacing an existing R22
installation completely, explains La
Grange.
“What if it is was possible to replace the
R22 with an alternative refrigerant without
changing the entire installation? This is
indeed the case with some modifications
to existing R22 systems. We are able
to see this from global research and
applications. R290 can indeed be used to
retrofit R22 systems,” he explains.
This application is not new. With the
discovery that CFCs like R11 and R12
were contributing handsomely to the
stratospheric ozone depletion, alternative
synthetic refrigerants were developed
with a much lower ODP to lower the
environmental impact. (R22 being a
primary example — but R22 still has a
small ODP.) In some cases, the shift to
hydrocarbons (HC) was made decades
ago. Specifically, when it comes to
domestic appliances operating with R290.
Most of these appliances are made today
with R290 or R600a as refrigerant.
“Yes, there absolutely are issues that
need to be resolved to reduce risks when
it comes to the flammability of R290.
Others have done so to a large extent
already. We can learn from and expand
upon their experience,” he says.
“From the lectures around R290, we
trust you will be in a position to benefit
from the relevant information and to
equip you in design, maintenance, and
potential conversions of systems to R290 as
an alternative with a very low GWP and as
practical as R22 was in many ways.”
EXPERT SPEAKER
The 2019 SAIRAC Dreosti lecture is to
be delivered by Dr Volkmar Haase. Dr
Haase was the programme director for
Proklima GTZ and has vast knowledge
and experience relating to all aspects
around R290 and the application thereof
pertaining to refrigeration. As an imminent
authority on the subject, he was an easy
choice to make.
DIARISE NOW
While final details around venues are still
being finalised, the following dates have
been fixed:
Johannesburg: 11 June
Durban: 12 June
Port Elizabeth: 13 June
Cape Town: 19 June
After the presentation in Cape Town,
a function will be hosted to welcome
Proklima, the Western Cape Government,
dignitaries from Bavaria, and others.
These dates were especially chosen
by SAIRAC, as well as governmental and
international colleagues, to coincide
with a workshop being held on natural
refrigerants in the Western Cape.
COLD LINK AFRICA • March/April 2019
TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
The workshop is to be held on 20–21
June 2019 in Cape Town and is to be
themed around the opportunities and
the challenges for energy-efficient and
climate-friendly cooling solutions in the
South African market. The Western Cape
Government is jointly organising the
technical workshop with the Bavarian
State Ministry of the Environment and
Consumer Protection, the Bavarian
Environment Agency, and the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
This technical workshop aims to
bring together government, as well
as manufacturers, distributors, training
institutions, and servicing companies
to talk about what is required to
unlock the market uptake of natural
refrigerants and energy-efficient
appliances in the Western Cape region.
The event will address needs related
to the implementation of international
and national policy requirements
and legislation, competence levels of
technicians for safe installation and
repair of energy-efficient and climate-
friendly equipment, as well as suitable
and successful best practice examples
from South Africa. Experiences from best
practice in Bavaria shall be presented.
As previously stated, final details
around times, venues, speakers, and
topics are being finalised and will be
published shortly.
GET INVOLVED
The combination of these two events
represents a great opportunity for
our industry to meet our international
colleagues and to plot our course for
the future. Ultimately, that’s what it is all
about: dissemination of knowledge and
information.
More information to follow in future
publications. Watch this space! CLA
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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