It is part of the effort made by the Ministry of Environment of Argentina for the use of substances that do not affect the ozone layer or contribute to climate change.
The office of the Ozone Program, which is part of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation, began yesterday the training cycle for refrigeration technicians called “Management of good practices in refrigeration equipment”, which will take place at different points in the country throughout the year. In the beginning, made up of two days, specialists from different provinces and the National Technological University (UTN) participated, who will perform training functions for other technicians, in order to replicate the teaching of these good practices.
The courses form a basis for the subsequent certification of refrigeration technicians to be carried out by the UTN within the framework of the implementation of the National Certification System for Refrigeration Technicians in the safe handling of flammable substances in refrigeration equipment.
The Ozone Program is responsible for implementing all the activities necessary to eliminate substances controlled by the Montreal Protocol, including training for refrigeration technicians since the activity of these substances impacts on the decrease of the ozone layer and in climate change. It is with this impulse that the new stage of training began, since it is essential to raise awareness in the sector in the management of the new generation of refrigerants, so that technicians provide their repair services for refrigeration equipment – both domestic and commercial and industrial — safely.
A Technician Certification System has also been implemented with the UTN in this area. It is planned to continue delivering equipment and tools, in the form of a donation, to those who certify, in search of increasing motivation and participation in said system. It is worth noting that during the month of January these equipment, tools and training benches arrived in the country, which were delivered to a group of 20 trainers who were trained at the Galileo Study Center in Italy and who will continue with the training cycle that has just ended. to start.
With Portable Refrigeration Trainer produced by Labtech International Ltd, which numbered 25 units, the technicians did the training cycle for safe handling of flammable substances in refrigerants. This Trainer is made from a refrigeration system and is ideal for exploring the operational and functional characteristics typical of such Systems. Principles of operation may be demonstrated as well as basic servicing exercises conducted. The trainer is built around a special portable bench that incorporates a demonstration board onto which the components are mounted. The components are neatly laid out in a manner similar to the refrigeration circuit so as to be easy to understood. The refrigeration circuit is displayed on a colorful printed diagram.
This trainer also use R600a as refrigerant, which is environmentally friendly. Refrigerant R600a, or isobutane, is a possible replacement for other refrigerants, which have high impact on the environment, in domestic refrigerators. It has zero ozone depletion potential ODP and a neglectible global warming potential GWP. Furthermore it is a substance which is a part of petrol gases from natural sources. The refrigerant R600a has been in use in the past, in refrigerators up to the 40’es, and has now again found a wide use in domestic refrigerators and freezers in Europe, especially in Germany, where more than90% of refrigerators are manufactured using R600a as refrigerant. Because of the availability of isobutane all over the world it has been discussed widely for CFC replacement. Isobutane R600a is a possible refrigerant for this application, with good energy efficiency, but with a very different characteristic in several points, which implies the design to be made or adopted for this refrigerant. Special care has to be taken to the flammability of isobutane.
The Montreal Protocol is an agreement of the Vienna Convention aimed at the protection of the ozone layer, by reducing the production and consumption of numerous substances that react with it and deplete it. The agreement entered into force on January 1, 1989. Argentina fulfilled the international commitments assumed in this protocol, eliminating in advance most of these substances. The agreement is of particular relevance to the country given the geographic location of the ozone hole and its ability to affect it in a particular way.
Since 2004, the Ozone Program has trained more than 12,300 technicians in 73 locations in the country, and delivered equipment and tools free of charge to more than 3,600 of them. Likewise, from the beginning, more than 207 companies located in 17 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires have benefited from industrial reconversion projects in the sectors of rigid and flexible polyurethane and polystyrene foams; domestic, commercial and industrial refrigeration; automotive and home air conditioning; solvents; industrial sprays; sterilization and metered dose inhalers. More than 16,000 producers of fruit, vegetables and cut flowers that used methyl bromide as a soil fumigant were also converted.
courtesy of www.argentina.gob.ar /
