Life-Cycle Assessment of Refrigerants for Air Conditioners Considering Reclamation and Destruction

Yoshihito Yasaka, Selim Karkour (), Koichi Shobatake, Norihiro Itsubo and Fumiaki Yakushiji
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Yoshihito Yasaka: TCO2 Co., Ltd., Tokyo 102-0082, Japan
Selim Karkour: TCO2 Co., Ltd., Tokyo 102-0082, Japan
Koichi Shobatake: TCO2 Co., Ltd., Tokyo 102-0082, Japan
Norihiro Itsubo: Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, Tokyo 158-8557, Japan
Fumiaki Yakushiji: Daikin Industries, Ltd., Osaka 530-8323, Japan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Fluorinated gases (F-gases) used as refrigerants in air conditioners have a significant global warming effect, so their release into the atmosphere must be minimized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the environmental impact of two treatment methods: reclamation and destruction after refrigerant recovery. Plant data for R410A, R32, R134a, and R22 were collected from Japan and Europe and evaluated in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy consumption, and the Life-cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint modeling 3 (LIME3). As for GHG emissions, the results per kg of used refrigerant showed that the reclamation process emitted approximately 5.7 to 15.9 kg CO 2 -eq less than the destruction process. In addition, the energy consumption was found to be 82.5 to 250.6 MJ lower, and, for LIME3, the results were found to be USD 0.40 to 0.97 lower for the reclamation compared with the destruction. This trend was the same regardless of the refrigerant type and location, and it was quantitatively clarified that the environmental impact was smaller for the reclamation process than for the destruction process.

Keywords: life-cycle assessment (LCA); refrigerants; fluorinated gases; global warming potential; refrigerant emissions; refrigerant destruction; refrigerant reclamation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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