VATIS UPDATE Article

The refrigeration and air conditioning committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formed a panel to consider amendments to refrigerant standards, proposed by Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). If accepted by the committee, the amendments will enable wider use of hydrocarbons, a refrigerant gas which has significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) than other common gases. According to CSE, currently, India does not have any safety standards for refrigerating systems.

To bridge this gap, the BIS committee had proposed the adoption of “ISO 5149: Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements” as the India standard in 2015. But these standards restrict the use of natural refrigerants like hydrocarbons. ISO 5149, adopted by European countries and followed by Indian refrigerator and air conditioner manufacturers, states that the maximum charge size must not exceed 350-360 g of hydrocarbons, which corresponds to a maximum cooling capacity of around 1.5 tonnes.

A change in the standard would allow Indian manufacturers to expand their production line to hydrocarbon air conditioning systems with higher cooling capacity. CSE argued that ISO 5149 is restrictive for the use of natural refrigerants. Existing refrigerant gases are either ozone-depleting substances (ODS), have high GWP or are synthetic chemicals which may have unforeseen effects on the environment.