US RESEARCH PROJECT ON MILDLY FLAMMABLE REFRIGERANTS

The US Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) flammable refrigerants subcommittee, ASHRAE, and the US Department of Energy (DOE) are supporting a collaborative effort to fund research about mildly flammable (ASHRAE class A2L) refrigerants, such as HFC-32, HFO-1234yf or HFO-1234ze(E), in order to allow their safe use.

The Committee has identified the following key research topics, and is developing research projects to address them.

• Benchmarking risks from real-life leak and ignition testing
• Assessing flammable refrigerants’ post-ignition risk
• Determining set charge limits for various types of equipment employing flammable refrigerants
• Investigating hot surface ignition temperature for A2L refrigerants
• Creating a guide to A2L refrigerant handling and system installation and servicing
• Detecting A2L refrigerant leaks in HVACR equipment

Ultimately, the intention is to update ASHRAE standards ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 15-2013, Safety Standard for Refrigeration Systems, and ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34-2013, Designation and Safety Classification of Refrigerants, and fast-track these into the international codes.

 Source: RAC