TABLE OF CONTENTS - Everything R744

NORTH AMERICAN POLICIES: SIGNIFICANT NEW ALTERNATIVES POLICY (SNAP) PROGRAM (US EPA)
ACCELERATING ACCEPTANCE OF NATURAL
REFRIGERANTS IN MORE HVAC&R
APPLICATIONS
The Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program 5
is the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) program
for evaluating and regulating substitutes for the
ozone-depleting chemicals that are being phased-out
under the stratospheric ozone protection provisions of
the Clean Air Act (CAA). SNAP evaluates the risk of alternative
compounds compared to those of ozone-depleting
compounds and the available alternatives. The EPA
is authorized to identify, assess, and publish lists of acceptable
and unacceptable substitutes for class I or class
II ozone-depleting substances for different HVAC&R applications.
Besides approving substitutes, the program also allows
the withdrawal of substances from the list. For example,
a few months after SNAP approved the use of hydrocarbon
refrigerants in domestic and plug-in commercial
refrigeration equipment, formal petitions were filed in
the US, asking the Environmental Protection Agency
to withdraw federal approval for the use of one of the
most commonly used fluorocarbon refrigerants, R134a,
in new domestic and retail stand-alone refrigeration. A
similar petition, filed earlier on, asked the EPA to remove
R134a from the list of approved substitutes in Motor Vehicle
Air Conditioning. The petition has now been found
complete by the Agency, which will initiate a notice and
comment rulemaking in response to it 6 .
Therefore, all substances that can potentially be used as
refrigerants are, by default, not allowed on the market
until deemed “acceptable” either with or without use restrictions.
With the international context driving R&D in
new refrigerants, the SNAP program has been very active
over the last couple of years in approving new substances.
In the area of natural refrigerants, the approval of hydrocarbons
in domestic and stand-alone retail refrigerators
at the end of 2011 was notable, as it opened the US
market to flammable refrigerants. Approval of additional
small charge equipment could follow suit. A number of
substitutes have been recently reviewed under the SNAP
program and more submissions are expected. The EPA is
looking at a number of refrigerants across the board, including
both fluorinated and natural substances, such as
hydrocarbons and CO 2
.
As the SNAP program requires a case-by-case analysis of
the different refrigerants in specific applications, several
natural refrigerants must still be assessed and approved.
An example of this is equipment that is typically used in
food retailing environments. Many types of equipment
using the natural refrigerants CO 2
, ammonia, or hydrocarbons
(HCs) are pending assessment or approval (indicated
with an “X” in the table on the next page). As of
October, depending on system type and application, the
natural refrigerants carbon dioxide (CO 2
), ammonia, and
hydrocarbons (HC) have been approved in new systems
(N) and retrofit applications (R). However, some applications
have yet to be approved (X), as indicated in the following
table:
5 US EPA Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program. Available
from: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/snap/ (Accessed: December 2012)
49
In August 2012, the use of CO 2
in new vending machines
was approved. Activities concerning other end-use applications,
including residential AC and retail food refrigeration,
are moving fairly quickly.
6 NRDC/IGSD/EIA Petition to Remove HFC-134a from the List of Acceptable
Substitutes in household refrigerators and freezers and stand-alone retail
food refrigerators and freezers under the SNAP Program. Available from:
http://docs.nrdc.org/globalwarming/files/glo_12042701a.pdf
(Accessed: March 2013)