Refrigerant Recovery and Re-use - What are the Issues?

摘要

Refrigeration has come of age [1,2,3]. Our industry has moved from a pre-industrial way of using cold by winter harvesting, transport and long storage of blocks of ice; through the industrial revolution of heavy, low efficiency, mechanical refrigeration equipment (which, however, did the job of cooling that was required and, in doing so was the catalyst for major changes in the quality of life: transport and distribution of perishables; new industrial and medical products and processes). Transition into an era of mass production followed, in which refrigeration (and its companion air conditioning) became a commodity technology, widely used in the home. Our industry has now evolved to a state in which we have to recognise and accept responsibility for, and to learn to minimise, the negative aspects of our activities on the environment. (I refer, of course, specifically to the impact of refrigeration on the earth's atmosphere.) We now have the capability and the obligation of being able to reflect on the full impact of refrigeration and on how we should be using it responsibly. Each one of the four stages identified above, through which our industry has passed, and indeed is still passing, has its own characteristic culture and values.