Research committee for the risk assessment of mildly flammable refrigerants

Objectives
Rank 2L on ISO Standard 817 changed the restriction on refrigerants regarding their flammability and allows for the practical use of low-flammability refrigerants. However, in Japan, only the classifications gnon-flammableh and gflammableh are recognized in the High Pressure Gas Safety Act and the Ordinance on the Security of Safety at Refrigeration. With the objective of gathering essential data for the risk assessment of mildly flammable refrigerants, safety studies are being conducted by the nationalproject. Since 2011, these researches have been sponsored by the project gDevelopment on Highly Efficient and Non-Freon Air Conditioning Systemsh of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Members and observers
Members:
  • The University of Tokyo
  • Kyusyu University
  • The Tokyo University of Science at Suwa
  • The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
  • The Japan Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Industry Association
  • The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association
  • The Japan Society of Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers
Observers:
  • Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
  • The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)
  • High Pressure Gas Safety Institute of Japan
  • Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc.

Final report 2016
Final report 2016 in English has been released in March 2017.
ICR2015 Workshop: Risk Assessment of Mildly Flammable Refrigerants was held on August 20, 2015
Program
  1. Opening Remarks, Munehiko TSUCHIYA
  2. Overview of NEDO-Project -Technology Development of High-efficiency Non-fluorinated Air-conditioning Systems-, Mika SUZAWA
  3. Research Project on Risk Assessment of Mildly Flammable Refrigerants, Eiji HIHARA
  4. Fundamental and Practical Flammability Properties of 2L Refrigerants, Kenji TAKIZAWA
  5. Hazard assessment of the combustion of mildly flammable refrigerants, Tei SABURI
  6. Experimental Evaluation of Physical Hazard of A2L Refrigerant Assuming Actual Handling Situations, Tomohiko IMAMURA
  7. Diesel Combustion of Oil and Refrigerant Mixture during Pump Down of Air Conditioners, Chaobin DANG
  8. Basic Procedure of the Risk Assessment in JRAIA, Satoru FUJIMOTO
  9. Overview of the Risk Assessment for Residential Air-Conditioners, Kenji TAKAICHI
  10. Overview of the Risk Assessment for VRF System, Ryuzaburo YAJIMA
  11. Overview of the Risk Assessment for Chiller, Kenji UEDA
  12. Overview of AHRI Risk Assessment Studies for A2L Refrigerants, Xudong WANG
  13. Research on Flammability of the lower GWP refrigerants, Zhao YANG

Copyright and disclaimer
Copyright ©2014 by the authors and JSRAE. This report or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of JSRAE except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Although the authors and JSRAE have made every effort to ensure that the information in this report was correct at press time, the authors and JSRAE do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Contact
Please contact us about any concerns excluding detailed contents of the progress report.
  Chairperson: Eiji Hihara, Professor of the University of Tokyo
  hihara@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp