A cool way to chill out without adding to global warming

Dubai: While air-conditioning keeps you cool, the planet is getting warmer. Gases used in chillers for hotels or apartments have proven to damage the ozone layer leading to global warming.

Called chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs these gases were largely phased out in the 1990s but their replacements are still not completely environmentally-friendly when released into the atmosphere because they contain ozone-depleting substances.

According to the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) the most commonly used new refrigerants for large building air-conditioning units can achieve high energy efficiency but have an ozone-depleting potential or are relatively potent greenhouse gases.

Dubai-based company Enviroserve can reclaim refrigerant gases to avoid unnecessary emissions.

CFC replacements are hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and have much shorter atmospheric lifetimes than CFCs so their participation in ozone destruction is much lower. However, they still act as strong greenhouse gases in the troposphere and can be regarded as a compromise rather than a solution to the problem.

Dubai Municipality has strict rules on the control of ozone depleting substances and states it is prohibited to vent any controlled substances.

Any violations could result in a penalty or trade licence cancellation.

Vinod Kumar from Enviroserve said air-conditioning refrigerant gas can get contaminated by oil and moisture and this hampers productivity of the chiller.

When chillers are serviced and the refrigerant is refilled, what remains in the chiller is often released in to the air.

"This is contaminated gas left to vent out so the machine can be refilled, but this is bad for the environment and the ozone layer," said Kumar. "The refrigerant is a CFC so it has been manufactured for this purpose, not to be mixed with the environment."

Usually during a service not all the gas will be released from a chiller which means at all times the gas will be contaminated and will require more frequent servicing, said Kumar.

One method is to recover and reclaim the contaminated refrigerant, treat it and put it back in the system.

"We don't vent it out so people can inhale it, we clean it essentially, for a minimal fee. It is more of a social responsibility," he said.

CFCs: Destroying ozone layer

By the 1980s, scientists had concluded CFCs were destroying the ozone layer, and the UN Environment Programme began negotiations. In 1987 a treaty called The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was created. It provided the first global controls on CFCs. In the decade that followed the Montreal Protocol was made more stringent as mounting evidence proved stratospheric ozone depletion and the ozone hole in particular, were caused by emissions of manufactured chemicals.

Source: United States Environment Protection Agency

It is an international campaign to save the world's threatened tree species.

The Global Trees Campaign's mission is to help conserve trees and save the most threatened species through information, conservation and wise use.

It operates as a joint initiative between Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).

Along with projects in several countries, the campaign provides companies with ways to reduce wood waste during furniture manufacture.

It also gives budding environmentalists a guide to the type of wood used in items most people do not think twice about, such as guitars and other musical instruments.

Initiatives

Involved with a wide range of initiatives around the world, the GTC has global projects that are carefully chosen and monitored with the help of local experts.

- Compiled by Hind Al Yousef, Community Web Journalist