Chemical Engineering March 2017 - 15

Newsfront
Refrigerants: New Rules
Reinforce Innovation
As new regulations take effect, familiar refrigerants are being phased out and a variety of
next-generation materials and processes are being introduced
Chemours
A
greed upon in October
2016 after negotiations
from over 170 nations,
the Kigali Amendment
to the Montreal Protocol seeks
to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbon
(HFC) refrigerants due
to their high global-warming potential
(GWP), paving the way for
newer, low-GWP refrigerant materials
to enter the marketplace.
Although the Kigali Amendment
is certainly the most prominent
refrigerant-related ruling in recent
years, several other regulations
focused on reducing the
use of high-GWP chemical refrigerants have
been implemented, including major delistings
of HFCs in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. This
article provides perspective on low-GWP refrigerants
and some attendant operational
considerations, and also highlights two refrigerant-free
cooling technologies.
Growth in HFOs
Although the Kigali Amendment was not finalized
until late last year, the industry has
been preparing for an eventual phasedown
of HFCs for many years. Manufacturing capacity
for low-GWP hydrofluoroolefin (HFO)
refrigerants is set to ramp up significantly in
the coming years, thanks to investments from
companies like Honeywell (Morris Plains, N.J.;
www.honeywell.com) and The Chemours Co.
(Wilmington, Del.; www.chemours.com).
" Honeywell anticipated the need for nextgeneration
replacements to HFCs more than
a decade ago, and has invested $900 million
in R&D and new capacity to produce HFC
alternatives, " says Rajiv Banavali, vice president
and chief technical officer for Honeywell
Advanced Materials. The company is nearing
startup of what is said to be the world's largest
manufacturing site for next-generation mobile
air-conditioning refrigerants in Geismar, La.
IN BRIEF
GROWTH IN HFOS
COMPATIBILITY FACTORS
BEYOND THE
COMPRESSION CYCLE
FIGURE 1. Chemours breaks ground on a major production site for low-GWP
HFO refrigerants
" There are multiple factors involved in
phasing down a generation of substances
like HFCs, " says Banavali, including costs,
the availability of replacement substances,
the resources required to produce replacements
and the readiness of current applications
to accept replacements without significant
retrofitting. To make the transition to
new refrigerants as seamless as possible,
HFO producers strive to make their products
" drop-in " replacements for legacy refrigerants,
and Honeywell's Solstice suite of HFO-based
products has been reviewed by several regulatory
and industrial organizations for use in
the intended applications. Low- and mediumpressure
chillers are an area where Solstice
products have been especially adaptable,
as 15 chiller manufacturers have launched
models based on Solstice refrigerants, says
Banavali. Increased energy efficiency is also
possible with HFOs in some applications, he
explains, describing medium-temperature
supermarket refrigerant applications as an
area where HFO blends have demonstrated
as much as 16% lower energy consumption
when compared with previous refrigerants.
In February, Chemours broke ground in
Ingleside, Tex. for a new manufacturing facility
to produce the low-GWP refrigerant
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
MARCH 2017
15
http://www.honeywell.com http://www.chemours.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering March 2017

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