POST 1010E : REFRIGERANT GASES

POST 1010E : REFRIGERANT GASES Follow-up on Posts 00993E and 00999E 12 November 2006 ___________________________________ This posting contains three contributions. 1. from Soren Spanner (mailto:[email protected]) from UNICEF/India. 2. from Michel Zaffran (mailto:[email protected]) from GAVI in Switzerland, and 3. from Terry Hart (mailto:[email protected]) from india. ___________________________________ Dear Steve, Sure I recall, I also recall training State Cold Chain Officers. It would probably have been better by-passing the R134a. However, there were no HC appliances that had passed the WHO test, which is still the case. Hopefully the SolarChill, the first using HC, will be tested very soon. The R 600 is highly inflammable and can be dangerous if not in the right hands. Pls see the TechNet recommendations, below, from TECHNET CONSULATION, Copenhagen, 16-20 March 1998. Looking at the bright side, all the SCCOs were trained, provided with a very good toolkit, the toolkit can be used with HC too. To the best of my knowledge no refrigerators were retrofitted. For your information, during 2007 approximately 200 technicians will be trained in India. Best regards Soren TECHNET recommends that R134a remains the refrigerant of choice for cold chain appliances. R5. Any country producing or importing refrigerators/freezers with R600a or other hydrocarbon refrigerants, for their domestic market, may accept such systems for the storage of vaccines, provided that : * the equipment meets WHO/UNICEF standards * maintenance skills are raised to a standard guaranteeing that repairs are conducted in strict compliance with safe practices for HCR * policy makers, managers, supervisors and health workers are made fully aware of the risks and requirements for the correct use of equipment with HCR. * all HCR refrigeration equipment is clearly and permanently marked with non verbal instructions indicating the refrigerant type. R6. To improve the future cost effectiveness and performance of national cold chain systems, it was agreed that: * the performance required of refrigerators used for vaccine storage should be more closely related to the climatic and energy environment where they will be used and * the equipment, temperature monitoring, management and staffing of national central stores should be evaluated according to a standard protocol and criteria. R7. Recognizing that adsorbed vaccines are exposed to freezing damage in winter in temperate and cold climates, it is recommended that the TECHNET proceed with the development of Low Temperature Protected vaccine storage and transport equipment specifications, test procedures, and guidelines. --------------------------- Steve, You are right, this is a real problem. However, at the time of the change to R134a, I remember quite well that we felt that the R600 could actually present serious safety concerns because of all the training we had delivered to cold chain technician over the previous 20 years on how to repair fridges with brazing torches... The international community was actually not at all convinced that Isobutane would work out and in Europe only Germany went to R600 when all other countries went for R134a. I also believe that R600 was not accepted in the US (I could be wrong) There might have been other interests pushing but we did what we felt was the obvious way forward with 90 % of the industry moving that way Michel ---------------------------- Hi Steve, Yes I recall very clearly the Technet where these discussions were held. India's largest domestic refrigerator producer has moved to HC refrigerants over the recent years and many of the foreign imports are also HC now. It is only the hardline US supporters which are still toeing the R134a route. There are a multitude of good reasons to use HC for this size of cooling unit, simple retrofit being just one. Others include improved efficiency,simple maintenance etc etc. We were all very disappointed that this topic was not addressed at the Technet forum. Terry Hart ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. 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