International standards in refrigeration and air-conditioning

The alternatives to HCFCs include ‘ozone and climate friendly alternatives’ such as natural refrigerants – hydrocarbons, ammonia and carbon dioxide; and lower global warming potential (GWP) HFCs, both saturated HFCs and unsaturated HFCs (HFOs). In many sectors and individual situations adoption of these alternatives is not completely straight forward, since they exhibit a range of specific properties such as flammability, toxicity and high working pressures which can limit their applicability and require special practices or approaches.

‘Standards’ can assist with process of application of these alternative refrigerants particularly in developing countries for enterprises that are not necessarily familiar with them and can be very useful tools to assist countries with the introduction of alternatives to ozone depleting substances and related technologies, especially from the point of view of their safe handling and preventing hazards. A ‘standard’ is a formal document developed by experts to ensure a certain uniform level of products and services. International, regional and national standards can provide an easily accessible mechanism and examples for nationally-applicable requirements which could be adapted/adopted in countries for alternatives to HCFCs …