Managing Refrigerant Emissions By Simplified Mass Balance Method

Managing Refrigerant Emissions By Simplified Mass Balance Method

Current levels of harmful chemicals and refrigerant gases like CHCs abd HFCs which can adversely affect the environment can be calculated using the simplified mass balance method to predict future levels of accumulated emissions.

Information on emissions will help enable government regulators and environmental scientists tp evaluate global climate change rate better basing on the levels of refrigerant use and consequent carbon emissions which can increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

To determine the difference between the start amount and the end amount of a substance like refrigerant gas, a simplified mass balance method helps. The time period most commonly used is a calendar year. Consider this a similar concept to an accounting year for an organization's taxes. Emissions related calculation will help determine the amount of harmful chemicals used in an enterprise's operation and the amount discharged to the environment on a daily basis.

The equation used for the simplified mass balance method adds the amount of refrigerant gas or other harmful chemicals that enter a process, such as a HVAC-R system, plus the different ways in which those chemicals are used, such as waste, vented during servicing, breakage of the system, or accumulation as reserve stockpiles. This equates to the final amount of refrigerant gas entering the atmosphere that leads, in concert, to the depletion of the ozone layer and increased release of high global warming potential refrigerants.

With refrigerant gases being an example, calculations include the starting amount, transformation of the gases in the entire cooling process, and the waste generated at the end of the year up to reporting to a government agency.S. the California Air Resources Board (CARB) or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

By using a mass balance method, a facility is tracking the amount of substances used for a specific function in a very systematic and process driven way. This enables tracking and accurate data management down to the pound threshold across an entire organization if needed. This is split into how much gets into the system, how much goes, and how much gets stored and stays within the system. This approach is used when it is necessary to account for pollutants.

The improvements in operational efficiencies will fully out-weight the incurred overhead of more refined business processes when an organization considers the increased cost of refrigerant gases painted against the backdrop of phase out schedules, the mandatory reduction of greenhouse gases, and the looming future of a carbon cap and trade system.

The mass balance method is required by the EPA to monitor and track chemicals that have been identified as harmful contributors to air pollution, the deterioration of the stratospheric ozone layer, and to increased, negative effects on global climate. These chemicals include chloroflurocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, methyl bromide, halons, methyl chloroform, and carbon tetrachloride; in essence includes all the substances which are being tracked under the Kyoto Protocol and other environmental regulations being drafted in the US for the future.