AIM act updates

The AIM Act of 2020 was enacted in December 2020 and provides the EPA new authorities to tackle hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) issues with three (3) new regulatory programs including: the production and consumption phase down of HFCs; HFC management; and transition to the next generation of technologies. The AIM Act lists 18 HFCs and a phase down schedule.

As the AIM Act seeks to phasedown these long-lived, highly potent greenhouse gases, synthetic refrigerant producers have introduced another class of refrigerants, hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs). These HFOs are unregulated by the AIM Act. But, in many applications, HFOs do not have the desired refrigerant characteristics and require compounding with highly potent greenhouse gases, HFCs, to be effective. These compounds have been referred to as HFO blends, though they contain HFCs as part of the composition.

In example, both R448A and R449A, HFC/HFO blends intended to replace HFCs 404A and 507A have greater percentages of AIM Act regulated HFCs than of HFOs. They both contain greater than 24% of the HFC-125 (GWP 3500), greater than 24% of the HFC-32 (GWP 677), and greater than 21% of the HFC-134a (GWP 1200) along with some HFO constituents. Go to www.IIAR.org/AIMACT for list of refrigerants that contain one or more AIM Act regulated HFC’s.

Natural refrigerant solutions, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, exist in nature, have no blended elements that are regulated by the AIM act, and offer users refrigeration systems that are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, finalized in 2016, was ratified by the US Senate in 2022. This global agreement is intended to reduce the potential for global warming, by phasing out the production and consumption of HFCs. In addition to this, various states are also reviewing and passing their own regulations on HFCs and their management, phasedown, and technologies. According to the US Climate Alliance these states are advancing these goals through policies, regulations and legislation across sectors and issue areas. CA, CO, DE, MA, ME, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA are committed to promoting regulations addressing hydrofluorocarbons. Go to US Climate Alliance for more details.

Over the past 75 years the refrigeration industry has seen established refrigerants across industrial, commercial, and domestic refrigeration and cooling industries. One of the largest impacts and opportunities that will result from the AIM Act is an industry-wide disruption of the entire refrigeration and cooling industry. This will result in the development and market acceptance of new products that incorporate a natural refrigerant into manufacturing product lines. According to the 2019 EPA HFC consumption report over 70% of HFC refrigerants are within domestic and commercial cooling and refrigeration applications. Although these markets are typically not the focus of IIAR members it could be an area of growth for manufactures and contractors as the market evolves. The uncertainty surrounding F-Gas refrigerants and a growing public awareness of refrigerant impact on global warming will continue to mount pressure to develop long term refrigeration solutions that do not contribute to global warming.

The next phase or evolution will be the transformation of cooling and refrigeration systems to full building thermal systems that provide both heating and cooling within a facility or district of buildings. Beyond refrigerant emissions, the elimination of natural gas is paramount in reducing GHG emissions and will be a key focus to organizations Net Zero goals and targets. This will be applicable to large food manufactures, cold storage, and ice rinks as they have a large cooling load that generates a lot of waste heat.

In the past, capturing waste heat from the refrigeration system was not always economically feasible from a pure payback perspective, however; as organizations shift to incorporate GHG into their project analysis the business case can be quite attractive. Beyond the payback, another challenge has been the usefulness and availability of the waste heat from the refrigeration system. The industry is addressing this through the development of natural refrigeration heat pumps that can be used as either boosters to existing systems or standalone systems. The combination of refrigeration phase outs/ downs, proven case studies, and the drive towards reducing or eliminating natural gas within buildings will lead to further development of solutions that maximize the waste heat from refrigeration systems. The AIM act is an important step forward to the development of thermal systems as the traditional residential, commercial, and industrial cooling and heating refrigerant changes to comply with the current regulations.