FEATURE
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Renewed call to ban
disposable refrigerant cylinders in SA
Following the banning of HFCs in disposable cylinders in the EU, Australia, India, and Canada, A-Gas has
renewed its call for disposable cylinders to be banned in the South African market.
A
-gas submitted an official
report to the Department of
Environmental Affairs (DEA)
in August 2015, entitled ‘Disposable
Cylinders – It’s Time to Ban them’. These
are specifically-manufactured ‘one-way’
containers charged with refrigerant,
sold, used for servicing or commissioning
equipment, and then discarded.
As these are pressure vessels, they
have to be cut or punctured before
entering the waste stream. This results
in the residual quantity of refrigerant, or
‘heel’, being emitted to the atmosphere.
Where this procedure is not followed,
the ‘heel’ remains until the container
degrades, at which point the residual
refrigerant is released.
The A-Gas report argues that
‘regulations and enforcement thereof
are justified and required for matters of
environmental and safety concern, and to
ensure a level commercial playing field for
all participants.’ Despite clear guidelines on packaging
and disposable cylinders, end users are
circumventing the one-way valve and
refilling them, which is not only illegal, but
extremely dangerous. In many instances,
this involves bypassing an integral safety
device built into the disposable cylinder
itself to prevent overpressure. This can
result in explosions if the safe operating
conditions are exceeded.
The A-Gas report reveals that an
estimated 225 000 disposable cylinders
are sold in South Africa every year, of
70% are thought to be filled with R22.
Assuming a residue of 400g per cylinder,
this equates to an e