Hey Folks,
As some of you might know, I do a little bit of road cycling to keep fit. As the weather starts to turn here in Europe, my cycling efforts gravitate towards the indoor trainer. While it lacks the thrill of dodging cars and navigating icy descents, it does allow me to catch up on some podcasts.
I regularly tune in to Nexus, MCJ, Cleaning-Up and New-Ventures. This week it was an episode on Catalyst talking about cement. Certainly one of the harder areas of the economy to decarbonise and the pod raised some really interesting points about moving to ‘performance-based’ material rather than the one-size-fits-all approach that is largely used today.
Cement
It also happens that as a kid I sometimes helped (or hindered), my dad make the odd wheelbarrow load of concrete. The cement being the ‘glue’ in the mix. We were either building or repairing something around the place and, it is a material I can connect with. But apart from the buildings use-case, you might be asking yourself, what’s this got to do with fluorinated gases...
One of the big pain points with fluorinated gases, the majority being refrigerants, is that they are hard to dispose of. Properly. There are millions of tonnes in circulation currently, and quantities are increasing. They are invisible, leak often and unfortunately still get released to atmosphere, either deliberately or through negligence. They go on to cause ozone depletion, global heating or as is becoming increasingly more apparent - come back to contaminate our drinking water. A message you’ll hear me repeat frequently…
So we have this massive stockpile, or ‘bank’ of gases that will need disposing of, to prevent them ever going to atmosphere. That’s what real zero emissions means, surely. We can ‘re-use’ some of these in the near-term, but there will be a point in time where all of them will need dealing with.
It so happens there are several ways to dispose of them. One method is to incinerate them in cement kilns.
Using a simplified explanation for cement production here. Limestone is fed into large rotary kilns, as in the above photo, and undergoes a number of chemical reactions with temperatures up to 1500 deg C to produce the cement clinker. Naturally this takes a lot of energy, and hence fuel, to produce and sustain these high temperatures.
You can however feed them all manner of substances, like the flux capacitor on a Delorean time-machine. Shredded car tyres (tyre-derived fuel known as TDF), plastics, textiles and nut shells. And yes also fluorinated gases, including those trapped in the insulating foams of fridges and building materials.
With the high-temperatures involved, the f-gases are effectively destroyed, although there is some debate on how well this can be verified. It is fair to say however, that it does take care of the immediate ozone and climate threats, with minimal modifications required to the feedstock process.
The challenge however, is that cement kilns are not always near where refrigerants are populated. They are generally sited close to limestone quarries. So there is still a huge challenge in collecting f-gases from old equipment, aggregating them and getting them to the kilns in the first place. Not to mention the challenges of getting the process funded, aside to relying on mitigating credits.
There are certainly companies working on this problem. A good example being Recoolit undertaking the challenge in Indonesia. Globally however, it is an area that needs much more help scaling. Both from a regulatory standpoint, and in developing a commercial waste market.
If we consider the triple planetary threat of climate, biodiversity and pollution, then the toxic waste problem associated with f-gases affects all three. The massive pending clean-up of all the banked gases. The millions of tonnes already out there plus those that will still be produced over the coming decades. This is the can we’ve been kicking down the road for some time.
It is also the key focus of the recently launched COPA project for which I’m also involved. The working groups setup to encourage innovation around both the destruction technologies and also the financing mechanisms.
We can, however, all make a difference today. By not adding further to the problem. To stop the banks expanding. By carefully considering the refrigerants and gases we deploy in new systems. Using naturals. Not to mention keeping them contained with accurate monitoring, leak prevention and training. All topics I’ll dive into a lot more in future editions.
Bad cop
For those that caught last weeks Newsletter you might recall that we are still seeing increasing global emissions from HCFC-22 (r22 in the refrigerant world). An ozone and climate damaging refrigerant being phased-out
We then see news that suggests that some of the cooling systems being used at COP27, were using r22 and also r410a – another very high-GWP refrigerant. In disposable cylinders no less.
Giving the benefit of the doubt here, it was likely unbeknownst to the organisers and I seem to recall there was a similar story circulating around the COP 26 venues. It does however reiterate again, how often refrigerants get overlooked in the climate conversation.
You can read the full article here.
Where the f-gas hides
Recently I came across a NRDC document providing thorough and specific feedback on the proposed (at the time) implementation of the HFC phase-down in the US.
There was a broad range of topics covered. The industry impacts, environmental and social implications, including the toxic by-products of next generation refrigerants.
I did also come across a section on Bear sprays. I’ll be honest that I didn’t even know these were a thing. I’ve been fortunate to visit many parts of world but few bear-occupied regions. It would seem however, that bear deterrent sprays are an extension of the larger human defence spray industry.
Both bear (and human) sprays still largely use HFC-134a as a propellant, being non-flammable and non-toxic to humans. The gas does however have a large global warming impact.
Defence sprays, just in the US, are estimated to contain around 125 MT of gas in 2020. With HFC-134a having a GWP of 1530 (1.5 thousand times more potent than CO2 - AR6) that is a genuinely eye-watering amount of canned emissions.
Given also that many bear species are threatened, perhaps we would do well to hand them the defence sprays instead.
That’s a wrap for this week, and ‘til next time,
Adrian.
p.s. given the above topic I’d also like to acknowledge the work of NGOs such as EIA and DUH that tackle both f-gas issues and those affecting nature and wildlife
p.p.s. as always bonus points for those that identify the artist, album or track in the title and the tenuous link… Last week’s song title was dug out from my Triple J Hottest 100 of all time circa 2009
Fixed stuff here for newcomers
There is lots of news every week from the cooling industry and plenty of newsletters that cover it well. The intention is to keep this newsletter focussed on refrigerants, the most prominent of the f-gases, and importantly their environmental impact. That’s the lane I’ve chosen - I’ll do my best to stick to it.
Why any of this matters:
Emissions from f-gases and refrigerants have been the fastest growing greenhouse gas over the decade (yes more than CO2 and methane - check out IPCC WG3 summary for policy makers). They are also classed as super pollutants given their outsized global warming impact over the coming decades.
You can find my basic primer here and a plenty more detail in the whitepaper here
Reminder to those in management and doing reporting: If you’re not including refrigerant emissions in your inventories or sustainability reports – you should be. Feel free to reach out if you need a hand.
Some useful permalinks
The scale of the climate challenge can often feel daunting. This piece helps me take a step back and understand where we need to focus first - recommend a read.
There are plenty of technology solutions available to address the cooling and refrigerant challenge. You can find many of them here
Beware when the same people who have contributed to the current f-gas problem propose you new refrigerant solutions… This is a good place to get up to speed.