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FRENCH STUDY ON REFRIGERANT CONTAINMENT

29 March 2016

A French study, based on a literature review and a questionnaire sent to stakeholders, has been conducted to investigate the containment for refrigeration plants.

The study was initially based on an in-depth literature review of good practices in containment for a wide range of equipment, stimulated following the publication of the F-Gas Regulation in 2006, and intensified thanks to the REALZero (2009) and REALSkills (2011) projects. However, besides good practices, little has been published on the subject of leaks and leakage rate, and answers to an online questionnaire were used to analyze leak rates and frequency.

The survey shows that leakage rate depends upon the refrigeration technology used. Direct expansion systems are more subject to leakage. The issue lies not in the components but on their assembly.

An important finding refers to the fact that the impact of leakage on the environment is, to a great extent, due to relatively few large leaks rather than a multitude of small leaks. Leaks in the range of 5 g/yr (standard minimum detection level), which account for 57% of all leakage incidents, represent only 1.12% of the yearly estimated refrigerant leakage. In contrast, large leaks of over 500g/yr, which account for only 4% of all leakage incidents, represent 91.6% of the total quantity.

Source: Cooling Post

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