US: Goodbye high-GWP HFCs, hello hydrocarbons?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a proposal that would prohibit the use of certain high-GWP HFCs in applications where safer, more climate-friendly substitutes such as hydrocarbons exist, for example in stand-alone & centralised retail food refrigeration and vending machines, motor vehicle air conditioning and foam blowing.

This action will not only result in significant reductions of harmful greenhouse gases, but it will also encourage businesses to continue bringing safer alternatives to market,” said US EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

End-uses and refrigerants affected

The proposed action would change the status of certain HFCs with high global warming potential (GWP) that were previously listed as acceptable under the US EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program to be unacceptable in several end-uses, including:

Motor vehicle air conditioning systems in newly manufactured light-duty vehicles: The US EPA is proposing to list HFC134a as unacceptable starting with model year 2021. It also proposes to list several other HFC and HCFC refrigerant blends as unacceptable starting with model year 2017, namely SP34E, R-426A, R-416A, R-406A, R-414A, R-414B, HCFC Blend Delta, Freeze 12, GHG-X5, and HCFC Blend Lambda

New stand-alone retail food refrigeration and new vending machines: The US EPA is proposing to list HFC134a and certain other HFC refrigerant blends (e.g. R-404A, R-407C, R-410A etc) as unacceptable as of 1 January 2016

New and retrofit vending machines & new and retrofit retail food refrigeration, including stand-alone equipment, condensing units, direct supermarket systems, and indirect supermarket systems: The US EPA is proposing to list HFC blends R-507A and R-404A as unacceptable as of 1 January 2016

New and retrofit retail food refrigeration, including direct supermarket systems and indirect supermarket systems: The US EPA is proposing to list as unacceptable, refrigerants HFC-227ea, R-407B, R-421B, R-422A, R-422C, R-422D, R-428A, and R-434A as of 1 January 2016

Next steps

The US EPA is accepting comments to the proposed rule until 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register. Moreover, it will be holding a public hearing to take place in Washington, DC about 30 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.