Managing a Decreased R-22 Supply

In 2012 expanded government regulations have drastically reduced the amount of R-22 from roughly 100MMlbs to 55MMlbs. It is estimated that servicing needs will require approximately 78-80MMlbs.

A shortfall of this magnitude will exist as a result of surplus inventory in the market and aggressive retrofits and reclamation of existing used refrigerant for eventual reuse.  It’s certain that inventory will be tight and in some situations, may not be adequate to meet all equipment needs.

Consequently, there is a convergence of regulatory events both federally and locally in California, which are forcing industry to pay attention to the leaks and account for their refrigerant usage.

Government regulations aside, refrigerant tracking and monitoring and waste reduction insures a healthy bottom line.  Waste can come in many forms: from unregistered losses to undocumented consumption, it is now essential to understand the metrics and deploy a system to insure accountability.  Asset management insures longevity to climate system functionality, meet compliance goals and reduce waste.

In 1998, the USA was a producer and an exporter of refrigerants until regulations, globalization and a growing demand for climate control equipment has lead to a shift in production and demand.   The following chart represents the transition:

This shift has had a significant impact on inventory storage, as lead times are long and complicated by weather, cultural events and logistic challenges.  Since government heavily regulates international commerce, this is one more challenge in insuring a streamlined delivery from source to user.

In 2011, two major issues exemplified the impact trade can have on the supply chain:  1) hard to find 134a – a major component in many new HFC blends – led to use of low quality replacement that had a fatal outcome when several people perished servicing units installed with this material. 2) Heavy demand for R-125 strained the supply chain leading to a shortage of new environmentally preferred blends.

This chart assumes EPA allows the greatest amount of 22 to be produced each year:

A simple refrigerant management program with a robust IT tool as its hub can provide a platform to manage the transition through this evolution.  Polar Technology and our partners have developed solutions to provide both the software and the logistics to insure a smooth transition that supports compliance and system up time (aka the longest operational horizon for your climate systems to function effectively).

Along with a versatile software platform, Polar has developed a system to support the transition of the refrigerant from liability to asset with unique identifier tags to serialize historically unregistered assets in the system. These tools are available through our nationwide authorized dealer network.

If you have questions or need additional resources in this transition, please contact us: csanders@refrigerantauthority.com / 615-834-0233 / @PolarTechnology