To an industry faced with the challenges of compliance with a raft of regulations from low sulphur fuel to the Maritime Labour Convention, the issue of refrigeration gas leaks might seem small, but owners of EU-flagged vessels will soon need to start paying attention, according to Svenn Jacobsen of Wilhelmsen Ships Service.
“Testing for gas leaks is at the moment, a maintenance issue but the impact of leaks from land-based and ship sources has the attention of regulators. For shipping, this is about to become a compliance issue,” he says. “Before that happens, owners need to start paying attention because the future costs of compliance will far outstrip what owners are paying for these gases today.”
Refrigeration gas is a commodity like motor fuel but is not a consumable and therefore should not need replacing. Jacobsen says owners who are paying to recharge the gas systems should recognise they have a fault and take action. In future, they need to pay closer attention. Are new ships delivered with gases that are compliant over their trading life and how will owners remain compliant on existing tonnage once the regulations come into force?
| Regulation background |
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The Council of the European Union adopted the revised Fluorinated Greenhouse gases (F-Gas) Regulation into law on 16th of April 2014 (EC regulation 517/2014), in a development that will fundamentally change the use of refrigeration gases on land and at sea. The regulations are specifically designed to reduce the use of F-gases, also known as fluorinated refrigerants or HFCs, within the European Union, by introducing a quota system, limiting the amount of high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants available on the market. GWP is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere. It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide. GWP is calculated over a time interval of 100 years and is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide whose GWP is standardized to 1. For example, R-404A – perhaps the most commonly-used shipboard refrigerant – has a GWP of 3,920. This means that when one kg of R-404A is released into the atmosphere it has the same greenhouse effect as 3,920 kg or 3.9 tonnes of CO2. From January 1, 2015, the EU will cap the amount of HFCs available at the 2009–2012 average volume of CO2 equivalents. From 2016 until 2030 there will be a stepwise reduction which aims to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases from 100% in 2015 to 21% in 2030. HFCs with a GWP of 2,500 or more will be prohibited from January 1, 2020 in new systems and for topping up of existing systems. Reclaimed and recycled refrigerants will be permitted to be used for existing systems until 2030. |
Prepare for a low GWP future
Clearly, the impact of the F-gas regulation on EU flag ships will be felt in force between 2018 and 2020. All vessels today have some requirement for onboard refrigeration or climate control and the regulations are weighted against high-GWP refrigerants, meaning that R-404A will be among the hardest hit. Used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems an average ship requires 2-300kg of this gas.
The regulation will initially affect all EU countries and all ships flying the flag of an EU member state but Jacobsen says other countries are set to follow its lead.
“The regulation will initially affect all EU flag ships and the EU is taking the lead just as it did with the prohibition of R-22, but since around 60% of the world fleet is using 404A, we can see the direction. The US is watching and has already indicated that R-404A will have limited availability after 2020. In late 2013, an agreement was made between US and India to support global phase-out of HFCs, so other countries are sure to follow.”
Jacobsen notes that Denmark, Australia, Austria, Norway and Spain have all introduced a Carbon Tax on HFC refrigerants to force systems to be leak checked and repaired. Australia may have repealed its carbon tax for synthetic greenhouse gases in 2014 but it is still working to lower this type of emissions.
The EU F-gas regulation will also introduce mandatory leak checks which must be performed by certified personnel.
Systems with a gas charge of more than five but less than 50 tonnes of CO2 equivalent must be leak checked every year, or two years if a fixed leak detection system is installed. Systems with more than 50 but less than 500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent must be leak checked every 6 months or 12 months if a detection system is installed. Systems of more than 500 tons of CO2 equivalent must be leak checked every three months or six months where a detection system is installed. For reference; 50 tonnes of CO2 equivalents is equal to a system charge of 12.8 kg of R-404A, or 35 kg of R-134a.
Options for change
With the phase-out of high GWP HFCs on the horizon, the shipping industry needs to begin thinking about the options available to replace them.
Using CO2 itself is an option but the system price tends to be two or three times higher than a similar capacity HFC system. Ammonia is also potentially usable, but there is limited knowledge and experience among operators and this also has higher system cost. Use of hydrocarbons is a further option but their high flammability introduces some additional challenges on board which owners may not find acceptable.
Jacobsen says many chemicals manufacturers are already running their research and development departments in high gear in order to have proved and certified solutions available when the regulation is in force and the shortage of HFCs begins to bite.
Testing indicates that the most popular substitutes are HydroFluoro Olefins and R-32. Both are flammable but with very low GWP and could possibly be used in combination with some of the options above.
“One thing is for sure; these new refrigerants will be expensive. The days of easy availability, simple products and cheap prices will soon be history,” he says. “In order to maintain the same expenditure for refrigerants in the future, present leak rates will need to be reduced by some 50–90%.”
Adopting a new mindset
Achieving that level of reduction will mean much will have been done to protect the environment and he says the focus in both the short and long term will be on encouraging owners to increase their testing for leaks.
“Owners could be spending a fraction of the costs they already incur recharging the system by simply keeping their systems leak-tight and this will only grow in importance. To some extent, the situation is exacerbated by a lack of technical knowledge onboard. Crew are far fewer, much busier and often less experienced than they were,” he says.
That lack of knowledge potentially extends to the shipbuilding sector too. Even though R-404A will be illegal on EU flag ships from 2020, a ship launched today will trade for 25 years so the owner needs to be aware of the issue in advance.
“Ask 10 shipyards what they recommend and you will find that very few have any idea,” says Jacobsen. “Not all of them have done their homework. Many will recommend R-404A, which will lead to a costly retrofit before the ship is due for recycling. It’s very similar to the situation around the R22 phase-out: customers will continue to ask for it unless they know it is illegal.”
The immediate opportunity he says, is to improve maintenance routines and save money as well as increase environmental protection. Better maintenance means fewer leaks and the technology is readily available: WSS sells fixed leak detector systems for around the clock monitoring. A handheld leak detector can help find the extract source and repair it.
“It is obvious in which direction this trend is going. There is international unity that reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions is urgent and must be moved up the priority ladder,” he says. “For those who completed R-22 retrofits and thought they could sit back and relax now, there is a new refrigeration-related challenge coming up very soon.
“The truth is that some refrigerants are more environmentally unfriendly than others but none has an impact until they leak out. The simplest way to keep a control on environmental performance and operational costs is to keep refrigeration systems leak-tight.”
Source: Wilhelmsen Ships Service
