ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Refrigeration involves substances, refrigerants in particular which normally function in an enclosure.

However several factors lead to such substances reach to our environment. Some will the upset of the environment; others will be poisonous and in general not welcome anywhere except in their storage or functional places. Some of the factors leading to their misplacement are system leakages, losses when changing components, deliberate venting to the atmosphere during servicing, accidents and so on. Not knowing such practices have proved grievous to our mother nature and sometimes added to unnecessary expenditure. It is for this reason that we need to understand some of the practices and their improvements hence this presentation. OZONE This is a gas made of three atoms of oxygen as opposed to two. It is formed by the chemical reactions with sunlight as a catalyst. This gas has a less stable
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formation. The stratosphere contains more and useful ozone. This screens out the ultra violet rays such that not too much must reach the earth. Most manmade chemicals containing CHLORINE, be it perfumes, agricultural chemicals, refrigerants- if left to the atmosphere will cause destruction of the ozone in the presence OF UV RAYS. Naturally ozone decomposes to o2 and reforms to O3 with natural processes at a balanced rate. However, the presence of chlorine from CFCs and HCFCs that have been released to the atmosphere puts the system off balance since one chlorine molecule will dislodge up to a million ozone molecules as it keeps forming delicate bonds. The result is increased cancer occurrences, cataracts, weakened immune systems, decrease in plant and marine life, and many more. The index for how much ozone a substance will destroy is called Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). Another environmental factor to be considered is the global warming potential. (GWP)
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The sun as a burning body radiates even to the earth. This radiation turns to heat some of which is radiated back to the atmosphere. However there are some gases and pollutants which may absorb reflect or refract back this heat so that the net heat of the earth surface increases. Such gases are called green house gases and some of their examples are CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, Carbon dioxide and water vapour. The result of not losing the required heat is that the general temperature of the earth increases. This is green house effect or global warming. Global warming potential is referred to from the point of view of R11 whose index is 1. Others include R134a and carbon dioxide. Indirect effects are such as when a non emitter uses a GW or allows more GW to be emitted while it functions, it is therefore imperative that systems be efficient so that less carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere.

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GROUPING REFRIGERANTS CFCHCFCHFCHCCFC This group of refrigerants is a generally stable structure hence will take a long time to decompose as such it would reach the stratosphere and cause havoc to the ozone. All CFCs have been phased out due to their destructive effect on the ozone despite their perfect functional performance. e.g. R11 R12 R13 Trichlorofluoromethane Dichlorodifluoromethane Trichlorotrifluoroethane Chlorofluorocarbons Hydrochlorofluorocarbons Hydrofluorocarbons Hydrocarbons

Most of these have been used as refrigerant as well as solvents

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HCFC These contain hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine, as well as carbon. There structure is relatively weak and hence break down before reaching the stratosphere. They thus have a very low ODP. They however also cause some global warming. e.g. R22 - Chlorodifluoromethane R123 -Dichlorotrifluoromethane etc HFC These have no chlorine in them. They dont have ODP .However they have an extent of GWP .It is not welcome therefore to vent them to atmosphere Examples R134a R125 R23 R32 Tetrafluoromethane Pentafluoromethane Trifluoromethane Difluoromethane

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HCs These contain only hydrogen and carbon ODP O and have some GWP. These are actually fuels and they burn with big flames handling them requires expertise otherwise can cause lethal inflammation. These include propane, butane, methane, and ethane. Another important refrigerant is ammonia. This contains only nitrogen and hydrogen. The refrigerant is corrosive and poisonous and must never spill on food. REFRIGERATION OILS Basic groups of oils are animal, vegetable and mineral oils. Of these the refrigeration and air conditioning industry uses mineral oils. Mineral oils are further grouped into three as follows: paraffinic, naphthenic and aromatic oils. Of them, the most suitable oils for refrigeration are naphthenic oils. Another group of oils is the synthetic oil group. The most popular are alkyl
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benzenes, glycols and esters. It is important to know the different applications of oils on refrigerants as wrong uses may have grave results on equipment. At some instances acid will form that will eat up rubber seals, rubber pipes, insulation etc. in other cases the compressor pumping efficiency goes down or miscibility of oil and refrigerant may be poor. Some of the oil applications are; HCFC group Alkylbenzene lubricants HFC group Ester lubricants e.g. Polyol esters (POEs) Polyalkylene glycols (PAG) Most of these lubricants are highly hygroscopic (they absorb moisture and hold it) as such it is important to expose them to the atmosphere as little as possible. It is a general recommendation to avoid opening refrigeration systems when there is a lot of moisture in the air or it is raining. DROPPING IN This is when one intends to change the system refrigerant by simply removing the
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previous refrigerant without necessarily changing the oil. For example systems using CFCs such as R12, R502, R402a, and R408a can accept HCFCs such as R22, R402a, R408a etc without changing the oil at all. RETROFITING The process of retrofitting in refrigeration is required when one wants to adapt a system so that it uses a new refrigerant and a completely new oil. This becomes essential when compatibility between the previous and the new substances fails. Such combinations may result in formation of new substances that could be acidic and corrosive resulting in malfunction and/ or complete breakdown of the machine. Retrofitting therefore ensures that a machine be thoroughly cleaned made ready for reuse. PAG oils are extremely sensitive to mixtures with mineral oils. It therefore extremely important that a labour intensive retrofitting be done so that the new oil composition has only about 1 to 5 % traces of mineral oil.
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If you still have R12 equipment and wish to change it to R134a usage, the following retrofitting processes will be followed. 1. Establish the baseline performance for the CFC refrigerant in use i.e. pressures, temperature at important points. 2. Recover the refrigerant 3. Drain the mineral oil from the system 4. Charge the system with the new lubricant 5. Change the filter/ driers 6. Pull a vacuum 7. Charge system with the recovered refrigerant 8. Run system for at least 1day to two weeks at most. 9. Recover or isolate refrigerant 10. Drain lubricant and test for residual mineral oil if less than 5%. If not repeat the process (you may use a refractometer to check residual oil percentage) 11. Evacuate the old CFC refrigerant 12. Charge the system with the new lubricant 13. Make required adjustments to suit new refrigerant 14. Leak test the final one 15. Charge system with new refrigerant and compare performances.
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A quick retrofit will take stages 1,2,3,4,5,6,15,14 and 13. RECOVERY At some time a technician will be compelled to remove refrigerant from the system for the purpose of repairs and other procedures. Regulations nowadays do not allow venting refrigerant to the atmosphere due to destructive effects to ozone and causing a rise in global warming. Only de minimus (minimum) amounts may be lost to the atmosphere. Some situations compelling such are: replacement of burnt compressors, removal of plant to replace with another one, or repairs that may not allow safe storage by same equipment e.g. high side repairs. Recovery refers to the process of removing refrigerant from a refrigeration machine into some containers without any form of testing or processing. Recovery bags and recovery machines are available for such use. Such refrigerant may not be reused since it may contain air, another refrigerant, nitrogen, acid or motor burn particles (you may take a chance to reuse but be careful with your processes)
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In Malawi, reclaimed refrigerant may be collected and sent to some central place such as Zomba Works Training Centre where a much bigger container will be filled and taken for reclaiming at some centre in South Africa. Passive recovery- this occurs when one intends to use the same equipment to recover refrigerant. For instance a compressor will pump refrigerant into some cylinder. Active recovery uses specialized recovery machines that will recover and sometimes also recycle the refrigerant. In any forms of recovery, take note that cylinders are not excessively pressurized. There are normally some limits in terms of pressure as well as mass of the refrigerant to be collected into the cylinders. RECYCLING To recycle refrigerant involves cleaning the refrigerant by oil separation, passages through filter driers which will be able to remove acid, particles and moisture from a refrigerant. This process can be done by the plant itself where a suction line filter drier is placed.
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Recycling units have been developed that clean refrigerant and stores it in some special cylinder on them and may remove any air by purging. This refrigerant may be reintroduced to the refrigeration plant. RECLAIMING To reclaim refrigerants involves processing refrigerant to new product specifications by distillation or otherwise and will require chemical analysis to determine that appropriate product specifications are met. This process may not be done at a local station but will require that refrigerant be taken to a process plant. Such refrigerant may be sold without VAT to encourage saving and reclaiming old refrigerant.

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