TY - JOUR
T1 - Life cycle assessment of fluorinated gas recovery from waste refrigerants through vacuum swing adsorption
AU - Gonzalez-Olmos, R.
AU - Llovell, F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/4
Y1 - 2024/4
N2 - The refrigeration industry is facing a challenge due to stricter regulations on the use of fluorinated gases (F-gases) with high Global Warming Potential (GWP). In many cases, the design of alternative refrigerants requires the recycling of low and moderate GWP compounds from existing refrigerant blends, but currently there is no a standardized technology available to recover them, and finally most gases are incinerated at the end of the equipment's life cycle. Recently, Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA) has been proposed as a possible solution for the complex separation of F-gas mixtures. The environmental sustainability of the recovery of R-32 from R-410A blend using a VSA process (circular economy scenario), was analysed through a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, and it was compared to the conventional R-32 production (benchmark scenario). The results show that the VSA technology can achieve a 30.9% recovery of 97 mol% R-32 suitable for further reuse, with a reduction in the environmental loads ranging from 58 to 99% compared to industrial R-32 production. The carbon footprint of the recovery process is 4.81 kg CO2 equiv., while for the industrial production of R-32 is 10.9 kg CO2 equiv. This study proves that the development of adsorption-based technologies for F-gas recovery can improve the environmental impact of these compounds from a circular economy perspective.
AB - The refrigeration industry is facing a challenge due to stricter regulations on the use of fluorinated gases (F-gases) with high Global Warming Potential (GWP). In many cases, the design of alternative refrigerants requires the recycling of low and moderate GWP compounds from existing refrigerant blends, but currently there is no a standardized technology available to recover them, and finally most gases are incinerated at the end of the equipment's life cycle. Recently, Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA) has been proposed as a possible solution for the complex separation of F-gas mixtures. The environmental sustainability of the recovery of R-32 from R-410A blend using a VSA process (circular economy scenario), was analysed through a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, and it was compared to the conventional R-32 production (benchmark scenario). The results show that the VSA technology can achieve a 30.9% recovery of 97 mol% R-32 suitable for further reuse, with a reduction in the environmental loads ranging from 58 to 99% compared to industrial R-32 production. The carbon footprint of the recovery process is 4.81 kg CO2 equiv., while for the industrial production of R-32 is 10.9 kg CO2 equiv. This study proves that the development of adsorption-based technologies for F-gas recovery can improve the environmental impact of these compounds from a circular economy perspective.
KW - Circular economy
KW - Fluorinated gases
KW - Greenhouse gases
KW - Life cycle assessment
KW - Refrigerants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85181769492&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.susmat.2023.e00811
DO - 10.1016/j.susmat.2023.e00811
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85181769492
SN - 2214-9937
VL - 39
JO - Sustainable Materials and Technologies
JF - Sustainable Materials and Technologies
M1 - e00811
ER -