Dear subscriber,
In this EFCTC March newsletter, we report on the adoption of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) position on the revision of the F-gas Regulation, which has been described as unrealistic by some industry trade associations. We then proceed with news about global and European HFC reported emissions compared to emissions derived from atmospheric monitoring. There is no evidence of underreporting of aggregate HFC emissions from Europe although reported HFC-134a emissions are overstated. Atmospheric monitoring also shows that in recent years global HFC emissions have been lower than previously forecast. Click here for more. Regarding the latest updates on PFAS, we discuss some initial observations in advance of the public consultation for the restriction proposal, using the potential impact on centrifugal chillers as an obvious example. We also provide some conclusions for Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) emissions and environmental effects from the Scientific Assessment 2022 Report in its Executive Summary and Chapter summaries. One conclusion is that TFA, which is produced in the atmosphere from the degradation of HFCs, HCFCs, HFOs, and HCFOs, is not expected to harm the environment over the next few decades, although some regional concerns have been raised; periodic evaluation of this assessment is suggested, as important gaps in our understanding remain. Linked to this, an Inventory of Fluorspar Production, Industrial Use, and Emissions of Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA) has been published for the Period 1930 to 1999 which shows – along with other conclusions – that TFA does occur naturally, in part based on the large quantities of TFA in the oceans (61 – 205 million tonnes, measured in 1998-2002). Finally, we report on the beneficial use of HFC and HFO-based refrigerants in centrifugal chillers designed for optimum performance. Centrifugal chillers have long service lifetimes of typically 30 years and offer reliability and performance efficiency. HFC and HFO- based refrigerants are widely used due to their technical and safety properties, with low or non-flammability being required for many locations. Do you want to learn more about EFCTC’s list of upcoming events relating to fluorocarbons? You can find them at the bottom of the newsletter and on the fluorocarbons.org website.
Thank you for your continued interest in EFCTC.
Marta Siddu – EFCTC Manager
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