33 REFRIGERANTS acrjournal.uk Continued from page 32 refrigerant products in each application sector. Table 1 below, which is by no means intended to be exhaustive, highlights some of the key refrigerants and end-uses controls in the EU and US, but in many cases it is not possible to provide a direct correlation. Details of the complete list of refrigerants affected by the SNAP Rule and of particular use exemptions can be found on the US EPA website http://www.epa.gov/ozone/snap/ download/FINAL_SNAP public factsheet_070215_508compliant.pdf RETROFIT RESTRICTIONS The SNAP Rule also places restrictions on the use of refrigerants for retrofit. Given the relatively large number of supermarkets operating with R-22 in the US, the bans on retrofit to R-404A/R-507 in key applications USE/SECTOR APPLICATION from mid-2016 is likely to promote the use of the remaining approved fluids such as R-407A. Unlike F-Gas where the use of virgin HFCs with GWP greater than 2500 for servicing is banned from January 2020, there are no apparent restrictions on servicing existing equipment with their original HFC in the Final Rule. Unlike F-Gas, there is no specific CO2e ceiling imposed in the SNAP Rule. Instead, we would expect that the specific end-use controls imposed will result in a significant reduction in CO2e emissions based simply on the effective bans on, for example, use of R-404A/R-507. Whilst the European approach has hard-coded GWP maxima for any alternatives to be used in various applications, the US will use the SNAP approval process to determine refrigerant acceptability taking into consideration safety REFRIGERANT DELISTED and environmental aspects and the availability of suitable alternatives perhaps allowing a degree of finetuning as to what GWP is most appropriate for a given end-use. There is growing movement towards a more global approach to HFC regulation. The Kyoto Protocol, which particularly focuses on CO but also encompasses some fluorinated gasses, has perhaps been less effective than originally anticipated. There have been moves over the last few years to amend the Montreal Protocol to include HFC phase-down with proposals from at least the EU and collectively from the United States, Canada and Mexico (NA). An indication of the rate of phase-down in CO -equivalents for the NA proposal is shown in Figure 1 with the existing EU F-gas phase-down schedule for comparison. SNAP DELIST EU EQUIVALENT MAC New cars R-134a Model Year 2021 GWP<150 Jan. 2017 Refrigeration Supermarket systems R-404A, R-507, R-422D, R-428A… Jan. 2017 GWP<150 Jan. 2022 multipack Stationary refrigeration No delisting proposed n/a GWP<2500 Jan. 2020 Vending machines R-404A, R-507, R-407A, R-407F….R-134a Jan. 2019 GWP<2500 Jan. 2020 GWP<150 Jan. 2022 Domestic No delisting proposed n/a GWP<150 Jan. 2015 HVAC R-134a, R-407A, R-407F, Retail food Stand-alone medium-T ****<2.2kBtu/hr R-404A, R-507…. Jan. 2019 Retail food Stand-alone medium-T >2.2kBtu/hr (flooded) R-134a, R-407A, R-407F, R-404A, R-507…. Jan. 2020 Retail food Stand-alone low-T***** R-134a, R-407A, R-407F, R-404A, R-507…. Jan. 2020 Retail food Remote condensing units R-404A, R-507… Jan. 2018 Heat pumps and air conditioning No delisting proposed n/a Single split a/c (<3kg) GWP<750 Jan. 2025 Moveable room a/c GWP<150 Jan. 2020 * and blends thereof **acceptable subject to use conditions ***only acceptable for FDA-approved medical applications ****cold space above 0°C ***** cold space at or below 0°C Mexichem.indd 33 14/08/2015 14:52:19