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ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

Discussion

Part 1

Part 2 – Research and Review

This part of the report will discuss the wider impacts of Air condition usage such as environmental,
energy, health impact etc.

Literature review

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0668.1998.t01-2-00003.x/full
For this review the author focused on the impact of clean indoor air and air pollutions in buildings with
temperature of between 18-28°c. This was recorded using a specially design test system to observe
the impact of temperature, humidity on the perception of air quality, odour intensity and emission of
pollutants from the materials. The result from the experiment found that the odour intensity of air did
not change significantly with temperature and humidity.

Finish off or delete

Refrigerants are needed to keep the air condition unit functioning, without a refrigerant there would
be no air conditioning. This refrigerant is kept flowing in copper coils and a fan is blown on the cool
coils to cool the room; the hot side of the coil is blown out of the building using exterior fans. There
are many types of refrigerant and each have their positives and negatives; the main refrigerants will
be discussed1:

1. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), Including R12


This was one of the first refrigerants used when the air conditioning phenomenon was created.
CFCs are a family of chemicals that contain chlorine, fluorine and carbon. This refrigerant has a
lifetime of up to 30 years. CFC’s are very stable which allows the carbon to travel to high
atmosphere causing the depletion of the ozone layer. This refrigerant is a very potent greenhouse
gas.

2. Hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC), Including R22


This was also the first types of refrigerants that were used. It is slightly less damaging to the ozone
layer than CFCs but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has still mandated a phase out as a
result of the Clean Air Act 2010. HCFC have a shorter lifespan and are less destructive to the ozone
layer compared to CFCs. HCFC are less stable as it has hydrogen. Most the CO2 will breakdown
before it reaches higher atmosphere, therefore less destruction to the ozone layer buy still a
potent greenhouse gas.

1"Air Conditioner Refrigerant", Airconditioning-systems.com, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.airconditioning-


systems.com/air-conditioner-refrigerant.html. [Accessed: 15- Jan- 2018].

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

3. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), including R125 and R134


This mix has no chlorine, which makes it safer for the environment as it doesn’t disturb the ozone
layer. The Kyoto protocol puts R-134a as one of the 6 greenhouse gases that needs to be reduced,
however there is no phase out date set in place and are being used in new systems specially
designed for its use.

4. Refrigerant blends, including R410a and R407c


These refrigerants are also known as azeotropic and zeotropic. These blends are increasing in demand
as they are environmentally friendly. However, the production cost for Air conditioning systems is
higher. As more manufacturers switch to these refrigerants the cost per unit will eventually drop. Air
conditions that run on R410A are more efficient, offer better air quality, increase comfort and improve
reliability. There is no phase out date for this type of refrigerant.2

5. New refrigerants
There are new refrigerants being used in air conditioning units such as carbon dioxide, ammonia,
butane (hydro carbon). These new refrigerants are fairly new and have air conditioning manufacturers
are slowly designing new AC units to accommodate these new refrigerants.2

The CFC refrigerant used in the AC need to be disposed after they have been used. There are three
main ways of disposing- recovery, recycling and reclaiming. There have been many laws in place to
ensure the safe disposal such as the EU ozone regulation (EX/1005/2009) and the Montreal protocol.

Recovery

Removing the refrigerant from the air conditioning system and storing it in an external container. This
will require no testing or processing.

Recycling

The refrigerant is removed and then cleaned for reuse. The cleaning process is done by oil separation
and passes through various filters. By cleaning, it helps the refrigerant by reducing the moisture,
matter and acidity.

Reclaiming

This will reprocess the refrigerant to new product specifications. This may include the refrigerant going
through the distillation process. This process requires chemical analysis and therefore will need high
tech equipment.

Regulation on refrigerant

Regulations have been placed on refrigerant, mainly CFCs after scientists discovered the harmful
effects of them.

The Montreal protocol 1987

This is an international agreement between several nations to protect the ozone layer. This was the
first type of agreement relating to the environmental problems caused by refrigerant. The agreement

2
P. Serv, "What Is Refrigerant and How Does It Help Your Air Conditioner?", Aire Serv, 2018. [Online]. Available:
https://www.aireserv.com/about/blog/2016/june/what-is-refrigerant-and-how-does-it-help-your-ai/. [Accessed: 15-
Jan- 2018].

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

was signed in 1987, and dictated the demands for the production and consumption of CFCs, HCFCs
and other toxic chemicals such as halons. The Montreal protocol has been a major success. In the 25th
anniversary of the protocol, it was mentioned that the world has phased out 98% of the ozone-
depleting substances.

Figure 1: Deadline for production of ozone depleting substances set out in the Montreal Protocol

Kyoto protocol 1997

This protocol is an international agreement which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, namely
carbon dioxide. This agreement required the worlds developed countries to cut greenhouse gas
emissions by 5% from 1990 levels by 2008-2010. The 6 main greenhouse gasses to be cut include
HFCs. The Kyoto protocol has been a huge success as it has managed to reduce CO2 emissions by
12.5%, which is more than double the target of 5%.

Paris climate agreement (2016)

This agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and strive for 1.5
degrees Celsius. Every country in the world except USA has agreed to this agreement.

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

Energy issues

Air conditioning is widely used and is very popular worldwide. This leads to a major demand for these
products especially in hot countries such as India, China and the Middle East. The demand for Air
conditioning units are increasing with urbanisation. Cooling has become part of 21st century life,
especially in advanced economies: people use air conditioning to cool their house, offices and cars.
Demand is rising exponentially which is driven by a warming planet and a rapidly expanding middle
class in hot developing countries.

Almost all Air conditioning systems require electricity to function, which leads to a strain on the power
supply. Air conditioning already accounts for about 40% of power use in Mumbai, India. Gulf States
have small population, but high energy use such as Saudi Arabia’s peak summer power consumption
(1bn barrels of oil/year) goes on AC, this accounts for half of the usage. In Britain AC and refrigeration
accounts for almost 20% of total electricity use.3

In the US, around 87% of buildings are now air conditioned, and the
trends in the developing countries are following the same route. The
energy use for AC in USA alone is equivalent to the entire energy use
of Africa.1

The intergovernmental panel on climate change estimates that


demand for residential air conditioning will rise from 300 terawatt
hours a year in 2000 to 4000 in 2050 and 10,000 by 2100. According to
computer weekly, global data centre power consumption quadrupled
from 2007 to 2013 and it is set to double again over the next 15 years.4

Figure 2: USA household with AC since


1970

The energy issues these creates are immense, below are some of the major issues:

 Increased energy demands, which will require more power stations and if the power stations
are not from renewable sources, it will lead to more CO2 emissions, which will contribute to
global warming. The air conditioning unit may cool the room or building, but it will make the
world more warmer
 The increased demand on electricity will lead to the price of the electricity to go up, due to
supply and demand. This may have positive outcomes if the government are able to use it to
their advantage. For example, the government can use the rising energy cost to promote
renewable alternatives such as solar and wind. The public will likely go to these alternatives as
it may reduce their energy bills

3Guardian (2015). World set to use more energy for cooling than heating. [online] p.1. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/26/cold-economy-cop21-global-warming-carbon-emissions [Accesed
27 Dec. 2017]

4C. Donnelly, "Demand for datacentre co-location services rises, as enterprise outsources more IT", ComputerWeekly.com,
2018. [Online]. Available: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500252465/Demand-for-datacentre-co-location-
services-rises-as-enterprise-outsources-more-IT. [Accessed: 15- Jan- 2018].

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

 AC’s may be run continuously. This may make the building cooler, but will impact the
environment heavily. It also isn’t very efficient as AC’s work most efficiently at full power
rather than short intervals if they were running continuously. Having a timer to set the AC to
run has been very common in new devices and it is a push in the right direction.
 In urban areas, there are micro climates caused by the extracts of the AC’s blowing into local
streets, this causes the affected street/place becoming hotter than the rest of the area.

Figure 3: USA greenhouse gas emission sources

Health issues

There has been a lot of speculation regarding the health issues related to Air conditioning. Below are
the ones that have been proven to have health benefits:

 Dry skin. If majority of your time is spent in an air conditioned environment, which is more
common nowadays as you wake up in a AC room, travel in a AC car and work in a AC office.
The moisture in your skin will deteriorate and without a constant supply of moisturiser you
may suffer from dry skin.
 Breathing problems. If the air conditioning unit hasn’t been well maintained and the filters
changed regularly. Mould is likely to grow, and the AC blower will blow this potentially
harmful bacteria around the room.
 Spread airborne diseases. As the blower is blowing air from the room it is in, it is likely to
spread diseases. Such as in public busses, if one person has a contagious cough, the air
condoning unit will help blow and spread the air by creating a draft. This will make it easier
and quicker for the bacteria spread.
 Legionella. In extreme cases, the water in AC units in large buildings may contain a type of
bacteria called legionella. This could be through the AC plumping or faucets. This will cause
legionnaires disease according to the CDC. Legionnaire’s disease is very severe and 1 in 10
people who have it will die. This will only impact large buildings as small AC units used in
homes and cars don’t use water.

There are positive health benefits to AC units, they are:

 Reduces heat stroke. AC is the number one protective factor against heat related illnesses.
 Easily able to control temperatures to vulnerable people such as hospitals and care homes.

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

 The AC filters are good for reducing pollen from trees, grass and weeds. This will help people
with allergies to these.
 Low humidity was mentioned as a negative above, however it can be used as an advantage.
This is because the low humidity will decrease the growth of dust mites and mould.

Refrigerant health impacts

Refrigerant especially CFC’s such as Freon are hazardous to health due to the following reasons:

 The refrigerant is tasteless and mostly odourless so it is hard to prevent or have a pre
cautionary measure until it is too late.
 When it is inhaled, it can cut off vital oxygen to your cells and lungs
 Breathing problems
 Fluid build-up in lungs
 Organ damage
 Sudden death

There are many symptoms that can deter whether you have been poisoned using refrigerant. These
can be found using your local health service.

https://www.airconditioning-systems.com/air-conditioner-refrigerant.html

https://www.aireserv.com/about/blog/2016/june/what-is-refrigerant-and-how-does-it-help-your-ai/

Environmental issues

The chlorine content in CFCs and HCFCs have led to the depletion of the ozone layer. The production
of new CFC stocks including R12 have been ceased in 1995 due to the Montreal protocol of 1987.

The 1997 Krypto Protocol puts R-134a (HFC) as one of the 6 greenhouse gasses. However, there has
been no phase out date and the refrigerant is one of the most common type of refrigerant which is
and is expected to be highly used in the Heating Ventilation and Air Condition (HVAC) industry.

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

Sensitivity analysis

A sensitivity analysis is used to determine how sensitive the results are if a minor change occurred.
Minor changes can occur due to many errors, namely human errors, this will be covered later on in the
report. For this analysis to provide a good indicator, there has to be a specific boundaries that depend
on input variables. For this experiment there a two major variable that are discussed below:

Increase in wet bulb temperature

The temperature of the wet bulb is the variable in this test. The dry bulb temperature remains the
same. An increase in the wet bulb temperature directly increases the enthalpy and the moisture
content proportionately, this is shown in table 1.

DBT WBT WBT altered Original Original Moisture New New Moisture
Section
( C
ͦ ) ( C
ͦ ) ( C
ͦ ) Enthalpy Content Enthalpy content
B 40.8 28.25 29.25 90 0.0189 95.7 0.021
C 23.1 21.45 22.45 62.5 0.0154 66.6 0.017
Table 1: Change in wet bulb temperature in section B and C

Percentage change:
Section B:
Enthalpy = 6.33%
Moisture content = 11.11%
Section C:
Enthalpy = 6.56%
Moisture content = 10.39%

The percent change suggest very little change in enthalpy and moisture content when compared to
other errors such as manufacturer tolerance of 10%. This shows that a change in wet bulb
temperature is not significant enough to alter the results of the experiment.

Increase in dry bulb temperature


The variable in this sensitivity test is the dry bulb temperature where the wet bulb remains the same.
WBT Old DBT Altered Old Old MC New New MC
DBT Enthalpy Enthalpy
17.25 25.3 27.3 48 0.0089 48.1 0.0081
Percentage change:
Sample data A:
Enthalpy = 0.21%
Moisture content = 8.99%
The percentage change shows that a small change in dry bulb temperature barely affects the moisture
content and enthalpy.

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

Increase in enthalpy
The enthalpy has been changed for sample data set B. The dry bulb temperature stays constant.

DBT Old Old Vd Old MC Old WBT Altered New Vd New MC New
Enthalpy Enthalpy WBT
39.5 77.6 0.906 0.0146 25.45 79.6 0.9075 0.0154 25.9

Percentage change:
Sample data set B:
Specific volume of D = 0.166 %
Moisture content = 5.479%
Wet bulb temperature = 1.768%
The change in enthalpy is minute in comparison to the two other changes. The percentage change is
so small they can be considered negligible.

From the sensitivity analysis it is clear that a small change in reading the values will not significantly
change the outlook of the experiment.

Errors in experiment

Talk about percentage error

There were many errors that occurred during the experiment, and minimising these errors could help
in creating a more accurate result and experiment.

One of the errors that occurred during the experiment is parallax error. This error may have happened
when the condensation from the water was measured. As the water fell into a bucket and was
measured using the naked eye, the measuring tool may not have been aligned correctly. The observer
may have recorded the result at a slight angle. As a bucket was used, droplets may have been left at
the top of the edge of the rim that haven’t been taken into account.

Apparatus error may also have had an effect on the results as the apparatus used may not be exactly
correct, as the manufacturers have set a tolerance rating on the mass which they have listed (+_1).
This indicates that the AC system is not precise. Although, the listed AC unit figures and actual figures
may have an extremely small difference, when these results are used in the calculations, the errors
may be multiplied and hence have a larger effect on all the outcomes. The equipment has been stated
as being very old, which could suggest that the machine is not as effective as it once was and some
parts may have worn out.

Another source of error could be random error, as the experiment was only carried out once for each
gauge, to increase the accuracy of our results, the experiment could have been repeated 3 times and
average values could have been taken to use in calculations, this would minimise margin for error,
hence providing a more accurate result.

From table 4 we can see that there is an obvious discrepancy between experimental and theoretical
values as all the percentage error values are above 10%, the manufacturer’s accuracy tolerance level.
This error could have occurred due to a calculation mistake in my workings, but this is unlikely as I
double checked my work and compared them with my friend’s calculations. As my calculations are
fine, this could suggest that the data itself could have an error. However, the experimental values

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University


ENGD3036 – Plant analysis and Sustainability

seem correct as the highest dynamic bending moments occur in gauges 3 and 4, with the lowest
values happening in gauge 2 and 5.

Nizamuddin Patel & Abu-Baker Gangat De Montfort University

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