Commercial businesses that supply India’s population with fresh food and produce are facing significant mandatory requirements regarding food refrigeration. To meet these requirements, businesses need to start preparing now for these changes.
India’s compliance with the Montreal Protocol’s Kigali amendment means that high global warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-based refrigerants like R-22 and R-404A – which are presently used in commercial refrigeration systems across the country – will be phased down in favour of next-generation refrigerants that have low-global-warming-potential (GWP) and are better for the environment.
With a baselining of HFCs planned before 2024, and a country-wide freeze on using HFCs in 2028, Indian cold storage owners, supermarket groups, small and medium sized food retailers and refrigeration consultants need to be aware of the changes ahead, understand the replacement options available and begin to plan their migrations.
The pressure is on India’s food suppliers and retailers to begin for switching on to next-generation refrigerants like Solstice N40 ahead of the ODS phase-out of R-22, avoid a disruption in supply and continue to meet the food integrity and safety expectations of consumers.
Fortunately, there are now new low and reduced-GWP refrigerant technologies that address Kigali requirements and allow a quick and easy path to compliance. One example is hydrofluoroolefin, or HFO, technology, on which Honeywell’s Solstice N40 (R-448A) refrigerant is based.
Solstice N40 delivers an optimal blend of performance, environmental compliance and energy efficiency, offering GWP that is approximately 38 per cent lower than R-22 and R-404A. It is also more energy efficient: in the US and European supermarket trials, Solstice N40 demonstrated between 3 to 5 per cent lower energy consumption in low-temperature applications and between 9-12 per cent lower energy consumption in medium-temperature applications compared to R-404A. In fact, it is estimated that replacing HFC and HCFC refrigeration systems with HFO solutions like Solstice N40 could save the carbon dioxide equivalent of removing more than 10 million cars from the road (based on Honeywell calculation of CO2 emissions or GWP value).
Around the world, commercial businesses are beginning to tackle Montreal Protocol requirements by implementing Honeywell HFO technology. To date, Solstice N40 has been deployed in more than 20,000 refrigeration systems and adopted by more than 30 supermarket brands. Tesco, for example, is upgrading 1,200 of its stores in the UK to HFO, and expects to reduce emissions in those stores by 40 per cent.
