Refrigerants are often overlooked, but they are all around us. Along the cold chain, they serve a crucial role in the equipment that maintains the freshness of 70% of the food we eat. They play a role in keeping buildings and vehicles comfortable by cooling, dehumidifying and heating. They are increasingly used in water heaters and clothes dryers. 

The job of a refrigerant in the vapor compression cycle is to change from a liquid to a gas (capturing heat) then from a gas to a liquid (giving off heat). In essence, the job is to capture heat from one place and move it to another. A refrigerator, for example, captures heat from the inside of a relatively small box and moves it outside.

Another example is an air-source heat pump, which during the summer captures heat from inside the home and moves it outside to provide cooling. During the winter, it captures heat from outside the home (even in subfreezing temperatures) and moves it inside to provide heating. 

The technology to perform these tasks, both in terms of the machinery used and the synthetic compounds employed as refrigerants, has developed over decades to use less energy while being more reliable. But refrigerants have also been the cause of environmental problems. In the 1980s, they were discovered to be the cause of ozone depletion, which gave rise to the Montreal Protocol. 

Designed to function as heat transfer fluids, most of the refrigerants are hundreds or thousands of times more powerful as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Recent research implicates most synthetic refrigerants as sources of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which in Europe is recognized as one of the forever chemicals that needs to be avoided.

Particularly in developing countries, making refrigeration more widely available could help prevent food waste and food insecurity. As global temperatures climb, more people around the globe will require comfort cooling to maintain healthy and productive lives, but this will require more energy and increased use of refrigerants.

What’s a responsible citizen supposed to do? What policies should countries adopt regarding refrigerants that will allow them to properly feed and house residents while not degrading the global environment we all share?

These are the issues we want to explore in this edition of the River Reporter’s Sustainability section.

THE THREE PILLARS OF REFRIGERANT MANAGEMENT

PREVENT END-of-LIFE EMISSIONS
Systems need to be in place to capture refrigerants from appliances and equipment at the end of life so they will be properly reclaimed or destroyed. We need to become better informed about recycling the refrigerants in appliances, like window air conditioners and refrigerators, and to establish Incentives and policies so that HVAC technicians will put the time and effort into properly capturing used refrigerants from central air systems and institutional refrigeration/chilling systems.

ENHANCE LEAK MONITORING
The larger, older and more complex a refrigeration or cooling system is, the more likely it is the system will leak. Effective system monitoring and leak sequestration is an important investment that all businesses and institutions should be making and public policies should be supporting.

TRANSITION TO NEW REFRIGERANTS
Beyond giving regulatory approval to new, climate-friendly refrigerants and phasing out the old ones, incentivizing the use of new refrigerants would benefit everyone by hastening their adoption.