China will release the first safety standard for cold stores  

The “Safety Code for Cold Stores” (GB 28009-2011) is to be announced this month by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of P. R. China and Standardization Administration of China. According to the China Refrigeration Association (CRA), who helped to draft the standard, the codes will be formally released in July 2012 and will come into force on December 1, 2012.  The safety standard is China’s first national standard on cold storage safety. 

 

 

The standard sets out detailed safety rules and principles for cold storage design, construction, operation and maintenance management. The standard applies to both direct and indirect refrigeration systems using ammonia and HFCs as refrigerants. The codes include detailed rules regarding safety management for the machinery room, refrigeration equipment and systems, refrigerating compressor, and other auxiliary refrigeration equipment. 

 

In particular, the codes provide a series of requirements that apply to cold store personnel. For ammonia cold stores the codes stress that staff cannot bring into, or store, any explosive or inflammable items in the machinery room. When emitting non-condensable gases, ammonia cold stores must employ a special air separator and ensure non-condensable gases are emitted to water tanks. The ammonia charging station should be located outside the machinery room and employ security devices, and any type of heating is forbidden when adding ammonia to the refrigerant cylinder.

 

 

The standard reflects both the opinion of industrial experts’ and manufacturers and end users’ expectations concerning the development of the cold storage industry in China. 

 

The standard has been jointly drafted by national professional associations and research institutes including: the China Refrigeration Association, the Internal Trade Engineering Design & Research Institute, representatives from refrigeration facility suppliers and manufacturers such as Yantai Moon Group, Dalian Refrigeration Company, food processing companies, and retailers such as Beijing East Friendship Food Supply & Delivery Company. 

 

 

The absence of safety standards for cold storage has until now seriously impeded the sustainable development of the cold storage industry in China. For refrigeration facility suppliers and manufacturers producing ammonia refrigeration systems, the lack of a national safety standard was a barrier for their products. According to Ms Shaoming Jiang, the vice chief engineer of Yantai Moon Group, as there were previously no concrete safety standards for ammonia refrigeration many local governments were reluctant to adopt ammonia as refrigerant in large scale cold storage projects due to potential safety hazards. The absence of safety codes also created a lack confidence in ammonia refrigeration systems among end users, resulting in many ammonia system manufacturers missing business opportunities in China’s huge and fast growing cold storage market. 

 

With a national standard, constructors of cold storage will now have concrete guidelines for the construction of cold stores that meet clear safety requirements. For end users like food processing companies and retailers, the safety codes provide a basis for protecting their rights and interests, removing safety hazards as an argument against using ammonia. Once the“Safety Code for Cold Stores” comes into force a key policy and market barrier to ammonia refrigeration in the Chinese cold storage market will be have been removed.