News | Striking Data about Refrigerants with Low GWP Values Marked the Last Thematical Meeting of the Demonstration Project

Chairman of SOSIAD Board of Directors, Turgay Karakuş noted that this Project they carry out with support of UNIDO and the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning is an awareness project. He continued to express that the Project covers replacing existing refrigerants with high GWP values at determined pilot facilities with alternative refrigerants having low GWP values; together with comparison, examination, and registering of results. Karakuş said at thematical meetings organized in İzmir and Ankara with high and effective turnout, outcomes of pilot projects were shared and resulting data proved the Project to be a success.

Süleyman Yılmaz: “10% phasing out is foreseen in our country in HCFC use between 2024 and 2029”

UNIDO Regional Cooperation Center Turkey Director Süleyman Yılmaz said: “In 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2019 our country received awards for being one of the best executers of the Montreal Protocol. In this framework, the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning and UNIDO have been selflessly working on projects. In addition, we need to adapt the matter of alternative refrigerants to our country considering increased global use of new generation refrigerants with Kigali Amendment together with environmental factors and increasing commercial competitiveness. The Kigali Amendment was ratified by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in May 2019. Our process of becoming a party to the convention will begin as soon as possible. With Kigali Amendment there will

be a limitation on use of hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC). In our country we are foreseeing a 10% decrease in use of such gases between 2024 and 2029.”

Yılmaz touched upon incentives and activities of UNIDO Turkey and concluded his remarks with the following: “We are continuing our activities with the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning in the scope of cessation of HFC management plan. We have achieved considerable success especially in foam sector. Many technologies are updated and new technologies are adapted. With National Ozone Unit Consolidation Project workshop activities we make projects and activities to raise awareness. UNIDO Turkey office has been active in Turkey since 1967. UNIDO contributed to establishment of significant laboratories in Turkey. There are some notable studies to support TÜBİTAK start-ups and particularly supporting initiatives in the field of clean technologies. In addition, we have some ongoing projects with the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning.

Rodica Ivan: “It is highly important that countries which have accepted fight against global warming as an obligation and not a choice support the process with their legal infrastructure”

UNIDO Program Manager Rodica Ivan started his speech by emphasizing the importance of fight against climate change and said the following in summary: “In the fight against climate change, reducing the use of and phasing out of refrigerants with high GWP values, increasing use of alternative refrigerants, developing relevant technologies constitute important themes for UN funded projects. In this scope, demonstration projects aim to increase awareness in countries both at the level of public and sector-wide to think on the subject and to guide towards developing competitive technologies and applications. This project that SOSIAD executed for Turkey, demonstrated that Turkey is a strong partner on fight against global warming. It is highly important that countries which have accepted fight against global warming as an obligation and not a choice support the process with their legal infrastructure.”

Onur Orhan: “We are working intensively to incentivize refrigerants with low GWP values”

Following Ivan’s speech, Specialist at the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, Onur Orhan made his presentation titled “General Evaluation of Regulation on Refrigerants in our Country”. In his presentation, Orhan informed participants about the Ministry regulation on refrigerants with low GWP values and said the following on development of gases: “Our journey that began with CFC’s is continuing with HCFC, HFC, PFC, and natural refrigerants. Our country has fulfilled its duties about such refrigerants in the framework of international regulations and released several regulations about these refrigerants over time. Efforts in line with these regulations are still going on.” Orhan noted there are studies towards protection of the Ozone Layer and continued: “As a result of such efforts it was established that alternative refrigerants replacing the CFC’s cause global warming and

that other refrigerants also have some environmental impacts. Such other refrigerants included those with high or low global warming potentials. This is a technical development that influence our regulation. Thus, we are conducting changes in regulations in line with the change in refrigerants in global refrigeration sector. Among our efforts there are the Kigali Amendment and Regulation on Floral Greenhouse Gases.” Orhan mentioned that the Ministry has been conducting studies from the perspective of both the Kigali Amendment and Regulation on Floral Greenhouse Gases and added that there will be a quota system on imports which demonstrates significance of refrigerants with global warming potential. Orhan also made a global assessment and said: “The advantage of being in ‘A5 Group 1’ for Turkey is having a longer time to reduce use of and phase out of refrigerants with high GWP values.” Orhan concluded his remarks by saying: “In the scope of either the Kigali Amendment, or the European Union, transition to using refrigerants with low GWP values is of utmost importance for our country. For this reason, as Ministry we are working very intensely to encourage and ensure use of refrigerants with low GWP values.”

Kıvanç Aslantaş: “It is important to judge the system with the totality of its management costs, and not just with initial investment cost”

SOSIAD Management Board Member and Coordinator of the Demonstration Project Kıvanç Aslantaş gave detailed information at the last thematical meeting of the Demonstration Project and elaborated on “Causes of and Expected Results from the Project”. Aslantaş first mentioned his 20 years of experience in refrigerating sector and conducting national and international applications in national and multinational companies including projects, productions, field applications, sales and aftersales services on carbon dioxide refrigeration and energy efficient solutions for the last 15 years. He continued his speech mentioning their aim was to create awareness on refrigerants with low GWP values in the scope of Demonstration Project realized with support of the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning and UNIDO.

Aslantaş underlined that they spent considerable efforts to create awareness in the scope of the Project for overcoming existing judgements and habits regarding refrigeration systems and noted that sharing real data and experiences from field studies at vocational competence committees ensured regular information sharing about the topic. Aslantaş added that thematical meetings constituted the most significant leg of such information sharing and expressed that with pilot projects in İzmir, Ankara, and İstanbul existing systems were successfully transformed with alternative refrigerants and results were shared.

Aslantaş said: “The first pilot Project we started with the support of UNIDO and the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning was an industrial refrigeration application at Algida facilities with a carbon dioxide and ammonia cascade system. The R717/R744 (NH3/CO2) cascade system applied in İzmir was compared to the existing R717 (NH3) system. At our Ankara ETİ Soda pilot Project, the existing R1233zd refrigerant was compared to R134a system at Process Chiller application. At three food retail store application in İstanbul, R448A & R452A were used to replace existing R-22&R404 refrigerants to compare old and new systems.”

Aslantaş also dwelled upon benefits of this entire process for investors and industrialists. “When you examine the cost of having a system, there is a large unseen part of the iceberg. What we want to focus on is this decision-making process that is highly important for industrialists and investors. Because right at that point, every detail of operation costs become apparent. Foremost among them there are important items such as energy consumption, production problem, maintenance costs, and production costs. That is why, a system must be evaluated not just with its initial investment costs but with the totality of all its operation costs. At that stage, it is important to transform data achieved to information and base decisions on this data. For this reason, we included remote monitoring on the systems at pilot projects in the scope of the Demonstration Project. Thanks to this, several values such as temperature measurement, heat value, and pressure value could be measured and compared.”

Aslantaş also touched upon SOSIAD’s “Real Alternatives 4 Life” Project in addition to the Demonstration Project and mentioned that they organize trainings in the scope of the Project that undertake to explain use of new generation refrigerants and increase competency. Himself a master trainer, Kıvanç Aslantaş noted that these trainings and certificate programs target increasing the number of trainers registered on the European Union database. He added that the Project covers mixed training programs on Refrigerant Emissions, Alternatives and Leakages, Refrigerants with Low GWP while focusing on combustible refrigerants (Hydrocarbon, HFO / A2L, R32) carbon dioxide and ammonia refrigeration systems. He continued to note that supporting F-Gas regulation applications and transition to low GWP alternatives which are among Project targets emerge as encouraging projects for a sustainable world just like the Demonstration Project. The Project Coordinator underlined that SOSIAD is the shareholder and leader of many national and international projects to minimize the risk of global warming.

Aslantaş concluded his remarks by saying the key to successful completion of this Project in a short time like 8 months is an amazing and harmonious teamwork and his wife and two sons were his major supporters in this process.

Barış Uçaner: “We will continue to work towards diversifying and generalizing application areas of the Project”

UNIDO National Chief Consultant for the Project, Barış Uçaner made his presentation titled “Administrative and Technical Requirements in Transformation Projects.” Uçaner underlined details of technical and administrative aspects of this project which is one of the factors under UNIDO’s HCFC Phase-Out Management Plan (HPMP). He noted the importance of transforming existing system to an energy-efficient refrigerant with low GWP level and having traceable measurements post-transformation for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Targets. Uçaner concluded his remarks with: “Project of introductive and sample applications encouraging refrigerants with low Global Warming Potential (GWP) will be completed until the end of the year. With the support of UNIDO we shall continue our efforts to diversify and generalize field of application of our project that has been successfully continuing in the scope of HCFC Phase-Out Management Plan (HPMP).”

Ersin Yücel: “We ensured an annual 648 tons of savings in carbon emissions with compressors having new generation refrigerants”

Trane Business Development and Sales Manager Ersin Yücel gave his presentation titled “Eti Mineral Water R1233zd Process Chiller Application”. Yücel mentioned that they started the Demonstration Project with SOSIAD to encourage use of refrigerants with low GWP values and drew attention to the importance of preventing global warming and creating awareness for a sustainable world. Yücel shared some data on new generation alternative refrigerants. Yücel said: “Instead of R134a with high GWP value, we used R514A and R1233zd refrigerants as new generation alternative refrigerants. R134a has a GWP value of 1430 while R514A has 2 and R1233zd only 1. That means, their global warming potential is almost nonexistent. Also, when we examine atmospheric lives of these gases, we come across some serious figures. Atmospheric life of R134a refrigerant is 13.4 years while new generation refrigerant R514A has an atmospheric life of 22 days and R1233zd has 26 days. Meaning, while these gases disappear in the atmosphere after 22 and 26 days respectively, the R134a stays in the atmosphere for years. On the other hand, when we look into evaporative pressures, we see that evaporative pressure of R134a is 261 kPaG while evaporative pressure of R514A is -57 kPaG and that of R1233zd is -39 kPaG.”

Yücel mentioned his efforts at Eti Mineral Water facility in the scope of Demonstration Project. Yücel continued to say: “At Eti Mineral Water Project, 2 devices working with R1233zd had 5.000 kW refrigeration capacity. The amount of refrigerant in this device is equal to 1043 kg, meaning the amount that 1.043 split air conditioners have. We gave two devices with a total gas level equal to that of 2000 split air conditioners. This system was compared to the traditional system in terms of energy efficiency. According to results of analysis, 1,197 kWh of annual savings was achieved at energy consumption. This equals annual 120,000 Euros in energy savings. This choice ensured Eti Mineral Water could make 648 tons of savings on CO2 emission annually. Considering a centrifugal compressor operates for about 25 years, savings on energy only results in a decrease of 16.200 tons in CO2 emission. Thanks to the new generation refrigerants, savings on carbon emission throughout the operating life of the device reaches 1,491 tons which means a total of 17,691 tons of savings on carbon dioxide emission.”

Erçin Kaymak: “Thanks to the Demonstration Project, new generation refrigerant systems shall become widespread in a very short time”

Erkasis General Manager Erçin Kaymak informed participants about “Examination of NH3/CO2 Cascade Refrigeration Systems.” Kaymak discussed advantages of application of cascade (multistage) refrigeration systems and gave the example of an application. “Our field of expertise is carbon dioxide, ammonia refrigeration systems. 95% of our activities cover establishment of such facilities. Carbon dioxide systems have many advantages compared to ammonia systems. On this issue we had the opportunity to see Algida NH3/CO2 Cascade Refrigeration System application in Izmir. We observed its engineering and construction advantages in place. In general, NH3/CO2 cascade refrigeration systems has high caliber refrigerant carbon dioxide that are sent to rooms in temperatures of -100C and above. Its first advantage is the fact that in case of a leakage, it would not give any damage to food inside since CO2 is already in the air normally. But in case of a leakage at a system with NH3 there are some problems. Another significant advantage is that it is possible to use 1/5 of refrigerator at a place with the same refrigeration capacity. This provides considerable advantages in terms of ease of setup. The facility is readily setup on place. This brings forward effective results in terms of costs and energy savings. These dimensions provide important outputs for investors and implementors alike and pave the way for changes in choice of refrigeration systems. Thus, I believe thanks to Demonstration Project new generation refrigeration systems shall become widespread in the shortest time.”

Yener Tekcan: “With our transformation Project at Sarıyer Grocery Store, we ensured an efficiency rate of 52.71%”

Following Kaymak, Envoytec General Manager Yener Tekcan gave detailed information to participants about “R22/R448A and R404A/R452A Transformation at Sarıyer Grocery Store and Energy Analysis”. Tekcan noted that they were project shareholders at application of new generation refrigerants at Çağrı Grocery Store and Sarıyer Grocery Store that were pilot projects in the scope of the Demonstration Project and added that the resulting data were very striking. Tekcan said: “In our Sarıyer Grocery Store transformation project, sensors were placed on 21 modules in the existing system active for 13 years. Control devices were added to the system and setup of Danfoss AdapKool Remote monitoring and automatization system was made. The existing thermostatic valves were replaced with Danfoss AKVP electronic valves. Dryer was replaced with the new generation central refrigerant system. More importantly, at refrigerants part R22 refrigerant was replaced with R448A and R404A refrigerant was replaced with R452A. Data achieved after all these efforts was staggering.”

Tekcan noted that the former system at Sarıyer Grocery Store/Ferahevler facility was gauged for 2 months and as a result of measurements the average daily energy consumption was found to be 389,9 kWh. He continued to underline that the total energy consumption was 184,4 kWh with new generation refrigerants. Tekcan expressed that with transformation project they undertook at Sarıyer Grocery Store, they achieved 52.71% savings on energy consumption.

In addition Tekcan mentioned they achieved a similar change in Çağrı Grocery Store in Fikirtepe and noted that in the 71 days preceding transformation to system using new generation refrigerant, the daily average energy cost was 305.9 kWh which decreased to 148.8 kWh following transformation. Tekcan said they achieved a considerable energy saving of 51.35%.

Tekcan continued to say according to data from the 66 days preceding transformation at Sarıyer Grocery Store/Etiler facility the daily average energy cost was 154.4 kWh while this amount was decreased to an average daily energy cost of 78.9 kWh with the new system. Tekcan underlined achievement of an efficiency of 48.87% and added that at all applications success of the project was proven with resulting data.

Tekcan concluded his remarks by saying: “Considering the fact that monthly average energy cost is around 20-25 thousand TL for grocery stores with 600-700 square meters area, savings on energy costs from transformations under the Demonstration Project proved the necessity of embracing transformation and importance of investing in it. I would like to mention my pleasure for being a part of this project and working towards a sustainable world. I would like to thank everyone involved in this process.”

Dr. Kadir İsa: “According to LCCP analysis, transformations resulted in an energy saving of around 50%.”

Following Tekcan’s presentation, Technical Team Leader Dr. Kadir İsa informed participants with his presentation titled “Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) Examination of Transformation Projects”. İsa dwelled upon Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) issue which expresses effects of HVACR systems on global warming and said: “In order to make a complete analysis of a system containing refrigerants – it is especially important to take emissions into account as a result of environment-related laws and regulations – we must make an all-encompassing analysis. LCCP Analysis is a successful effort that allows for such an evaluation.”

İsa presented a comparative analysis over LCCP of final reports belonging to 3 pilot projects where existing refrigerants were replaced with new generation refrigerants in the scope of Demonstration Project and shared significant data. İsa noted that when management energy data at pilot projects are examined from LCCP perspective, results point at a system with high energy efficiency and low management cost and GWP value. İsa said that there was a significant difference in terms of energy costs on kWh/year basis before and after transformation in İzmir, Ankara, and İstanbul and mentioned an energy saving of almost 50%.

İsa said: “After the system at Etiler Sarıyer Grocery Store was transformed to R448A (GWP value 1273) its LCCP (Life Cycle Climate Performance) value decreased around 30% compared to R22 (GWP value 1760). As a result of transformation and maintenance, an efficiency of about 50% was established at energy costs.”

Following presentations, the Q&A session began and speakers gave detailed answers to questions from participants.

Afterwards, Project Coordinator Kıvanç Aslantaş invited UNIDO National Consultant Barış Uçaner, Technical Team Leader Dr. Kadir İsa, Association Manager Kemal Öz, Supervisor Engin Sökmen, Management Team Leader Buğra Alp Buldur, Team Members Furkan Göl and Sıla Dinç to the stage. SOSIAD Chairman of the Board of Directors Turgay Karakuş and members of the Board greeted all participants with the invitation of the Project Leader. All shareholders and solution partners that contributed to the project were presented plaques and family photo was taken.