www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za RACA Journal I June 2024 29
Feature
Regardless of the safety group classification , be it A1 or A3 , utmost importance must be placed on ensuring proper handling to mitigate potential risks . Technicians operating in the industry must prioritise the critical aspect of refrigerant training . Alarmingly , a significant number of technicians remain unregistered and lack adequate training . It is imperative to drum home the necessity of attending training programmes to enable safe handling of refrigerants . This presents a formidable challenge that must be urgently addressed .
THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF REFRIGERANTS Regular Cold Link Africa contributor Andrew Perks writes : “ It was noted in a recent Global Cold Chain Alliance webinar in Cape Town , in an open discussion on ‘ manage the moment ’, that plant operator errors account for on average 80 % of all the incidents recorded .
“ There was an incident recently at a meat processing facility in the Free State which resulted in a serious incident which escalated due to unexpected factors . The engineer from the site that had the incident was quite open and shared the impact to the site with the escalating circumstances related to turbulent variable wind direction moving the released ammonia around the site so much that they had to relocate to different assembly points three times during the incident . This not only escalated the incident but made it very difficult to maintain order with those affected that were being evacuated .
“ You just have got to get incident response procedures in place and do regular training . It ’ s all about training , training and then some more training . While you may send your technical staff for SAQCCGas training , you still need to comply with current regulations that require an annual site incident response training / evacuation plan that complies with SANS 1514 ,” says Perks .
So , what do we do about getting prepared for your worst nightmare ?
“ It was agreed ( in the discussion during the webinar ) that having an up-to-date emergency plan is the first step . Thereafter , you need to undertake yearly site incident response / evacuation training exercises to get your emergency teams up to speed , which also keeps you in line with the MHI and OHS Act regulation ’ s requirements . It ’ s important so that in the event of an incident there are no surprises , and everyone knows how to react .”
As Perks says in the article , “ hindsight is an exact science ”, however in practice nothing is as valuable as having hands-on experience when dealing with potentially dangerous refrigerants such as ammonia . Nonetheless , despite the risks , Perks emphasises that there are many advantages to using ammonia due to the fact that it is extremely efficient and holds the potential to solve future energy requirements . As ammonia is a natural refrigerant it will not damage the ozone layer and is a clean source of energy .
“ Lest you have forgotten , ammonia ’ s chemical formula is NH3 . That is one particle of nitrogen and three parts of hydrogen . It ’ s the hydrogen that makes ammonia hazardous but it ’ s also the hydrogen that makes it useful as an energy source . As ammonia , all the particles are bound together , so it is easy to transport ,” writes Perks .
Supplied by Robert Fox
“ The fact that hydrogen is one of the lightest gases we know after helium makes it difficult to transport , but with the correct process we can split ammonia which is easy to transport into its base components of Nitrogen and Hydrogen . Starting to make sense ? So much so that we now have an ammonia energy industry . Back in the day who would have thought this to be the reality of today ?”
Perks highlights the fact that there are various ‘ green ’ ammonia projects which are currently being undertaken across the globe , which will open up a multitude of possibilities for using ammonia as a fuel source . In fact , such ‘ bunkering ’ studies have been underway for decades to find ways of using ammonia experimentally to fuel cars and ships . One of the advantages identified by Perks is that the only emission produced by cars using ammonia is water vapour , making it extremely clean as a fuel source .
“ A couple of years ago , the Ammonia Safety & Training Institute ( ASTI ) took the decision to develop training programmes for use in the ammonia energy industry . ASTI realised that the skill set required in the ammonia energy industry is quite different to the ammonia refrigeration industry in that the level of prior knowledge is negligible for those attending the training courses . In order to cope with that , ASTI developed a course ‘ ammonia 101 ’ for the energy industry . Perks Enterprises believe that they are in the unique position along with ASTI to bring this specialised safety training for the ammonia energy industry to South Africa .
“ The fact that South Africa is developing a new industry in the country to supply ammonia for green energy purposes is encouraging . There currently is a development in Gqeberha which is projected to come online in 2025 reaching full capacity in 2026 with a view of exporting Ammonia worldwide . This requires that someone be in a position to supply relevant training and certification . The project is said to be looking at filling up to 10 000 jobs when completely operational . The need for safety and operational training is therefore massive .”
“ One of the problems with the current training programmes in South Africa is that we really only have a skills programme for artisan training . You have to start somewhere but we also need to add those specific skills required for others who actually operate in the field ,” writes Perks .
www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za RACA Journal I June 2024 29