Page 36 - Climate Control News magazine February 2022

Refrigerants
Forum to combat EU black market
A PANEL OF policymakers from European Un- ion (EU) institutions and member states, as well as leaders from industry recently came together to discuss how to put an end to the illegal trade of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
The event was hosted by research and energy committee chair Cristian-Silviu Bușoi and or- ganised by the European FluoroCarbons Techni- cal Committee (EFCTC).
The black market has been thriving in the EU over the last few years due to uneven enforce- ment of the EU F-gas regulation's quota system for HFCs. The event was an opportunity to ex- change experiences and effective measures to stop this black market from harming legitimate business, feeding organised crime and under- mining the EU's climate policy.
Panellists agreed that there is not one way to combat HFC smuggling and that authorities need to be very agile.
Director for revenue and international opera-
tions and acting deputy director-general at the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, Ernesto Bi- anchi, said officials need to catch up with these fraudsters.
“They are very clever in finding new opportu- nities to make profits illegally," he said.
Bente Tranholm-Schwarz, European Com- mission deputy head and directorate-general for climate action, said the organisation is aiming to close these holes with the help of the new F-gas regulation which will be proposed next year.
Recently, some member states have taken ef- fective steps to address the issue.
Konstantinos Aravossis, secretary general for natural environment and water at the Greek ministry of environment and energy, spoke about recent steps taken in Greece where a min- isterial decision is due to be implemented to combat HFC smuggling.
Pärtel Niitaru from the Estonian Ministry of the Environment also presented planned meas-
ABOVE (L-R): Konstantinos Aravossis, secretary general at the Greek ministry of environment and energy. Research and energy committee chair, Cristian-Silviu Bușoi, hosted the event.
ures in Estonia which include increased fines and a ban of the possession and sales of non-re- fillable containers.
Information sharing between member state authorities was raised as another way to remain one step ahead of HFC smugglers.
Panellists suggested pooling intelligence and bringing together data from multiple sources to better understand and combat illegally traded HFCs from entering the EU. Cooperation would also ensure that when enforcement is strength- ened at one border, smuggling is not simply dis- placed to another trade route.
Swift upgrade to R290 at JBS
AFTER A TEST run at its Swift Valinhos store in Brazil, parent company JBS will replace 28 refrig- erators and freezers running on R404a with plug- in devices from AHT using R290 refrigerant.
The project was rolled out to 36 stores across Brazil in 2021.
AHT installed KINLEY XL and PARIS cabi- nets, as well as Daikin VRV air conditioning sys- tems in seven stores.
With AHT project management, all refrigera- tion and air conditioning systems could be pro- vided from a single source, contributing signifi- cantly to greater energy efficiency.
The AHT cabinets were selected because of the low Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the refrigerant R290 which has a 100 year value of only 0,02*. By using propane, the AHT devices of- fer global best-in-class GWP. Thanks to AHT‘s
full plug-in technology, no additional pipes or drainage had to be installed.
Committed to zeroing its greenhouse emis- sions by 2040, JBS Swift is equipping all Swift stores with new devices that use refrigerants with low GWP.
With the seven new air conditioning systems from Daikin, the GWP and TEWI could be mas- sively reduced and high energy savings achieved.
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LEFT: Swift Valinhos store in Brazil.
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