ABRAVA Participates in a Workshop on Alternative Refrigerants

ABRAVA was invited to a workshop titled Alternative refrigerants for commercial refrigeration equipment, which was organized by the Ministry of the Environment and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The purpose of the event was to update small-and medium-sized companies on the technical and regulatory aspects related to the subject, and current and future trends in the field of the use of alternative refrigerants.

Ing. Oswaldo Bueno, CB 55 coordinator of Brazilian Association of Technical Standards, ABNT, and Renato Cesquini, president of the National Department of Environment ABRAVA, represented the association.
Renato Cesquini commented, “The event was an important milestone in a new phase that the country will face in relation to two hydro-chlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) elimination goals.”

In his talk, Mr. Cesquini spoke about the ‘Current scenario and future prospects for the HVAC&R sector in Brazil’, focusing on the size of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) market in Brazil, HCFC volumes, hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) volumes, refrigerants: good practice, capacities, trends in refrigerants and systems, and the case for solutions with a lower environmental impact.
 
The workshop was carried out within the scope of Step 2 of the Brazilian program for the elimination of HCFCs, which, among the actions envisaged, aims to provide technical and financial assistance to small- and medium-sized manufacturers of commercial refrigeration equipment, enabling the development and implementation of new technologies related to environmentally friendly alternative refrigerants.

Oswaldo Bueno addressed standards and regulatory aspects. Oswaldo Bueno commented, “It was very important to learn about the dissemination of standards related to refrigerants and safety in refrigeration systems, and to take on board information about the developed and current standards, as well as being updated on work in progress in the translation of ISO 5149-1: 2014 Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements – Part 1: Definitions, classification and selection criteria.”