Rapid Natural Refrigerant Growth in Australia, Says Government Report

A  2019 update to the Cold Hard Facts series of reports on the state of the Australian HVAC&R industry, from the Australian Government’s Department of Environment and Energy, shows increased natural refrigerant activity, resulting in decreased HFC and HCFC usage. 

The Cold Hard Facts series of reports – Cold Hard Facts 1, published in 2007, Cold Hard Facts 2, published in 2013, and Cold Hard Facts 3, published in 2018 –  provide economic and technological assessments. These assessments assist industry and policymakers with the management of ozone-depleting substances as they are phased out, and management of synthetic greenhouse gases, including HFCs, which are currently being phased down. 

Cold Hard Facts 2019 was published in September and brings together data from 2017 and 2018 that was not included in Cold Hard facts 3, and analysis to identify key developments and emerging trends.

Progress for NatRefs

“The emergence of CO₂ cascade and transcritical systems in commercial refrigeration saw rapid growth of CO₂ systems employed in the cold food chain,” according to the report. “Innovation in the use of low-charge ammonia systems added to the highly energy-efficient options for new build commercial refrigeration systems with a cooling capacity greater than 50kW [14.2TR].”

The report also claims that migration of new domestic refrigeration models to a hydrocarbon refrigerant is effectively complete with more than 99% of domestic refrigeration models surveyed on a retail shop floor found to be using hydrocarbons. “Adoption of hydrocarbons in other parts of the cold food chain continued with the introduction of numerous small, self-contained commercial refrigeration models employing hydrocarbons.”  

According to the report, these trends with CO₂, ammonia and hydrocarbon refrigerants resulted in the share (in metric tons) of the HCFC and HFC refrigerant bank used in the refrigerated cold food chain falling again from 14% in 2016 to 13% in 2018.

Download the Cold Hard Facts 2019 report