Document aBzaYLaqDK7kmk3wDEBMOV5wa

FRIULAIR REPORT - PFAS SITUATION 12/09/2023 Brief notes on the company Friulair Srl is a company founded in 1989 in Friuli Venezia Giulia by Mr. Luigi Vaccaro. The company was born from a core of 5 employees and 150 square meters of produc on surface, and has grown in 33 years to reach its current size of around 200 employees, more than 14,000 covered square meters and around 200 suppliers (mostly local), more than 1000 customer worldwide. Friulair also owns a branch in Thailand, engaged in produc on for the South East Asian market, founded in 2000. What is Friulair's core business? Friulair Srl builds refrigera on machines, divided into Dryers, i.e. dryers for compressed air, and Chillers, i.e. systems for cooling process water. Friulair currently is one of the major players in refrigerated compressed air dryer applica on divided into different types of dimensions and manufacturing complexity, and its core business at the moment is dryers for compressed air. What are dryers for? These dryers are necessary for drying the compressed air generated and intended for use in industrial processes. The dryer is a fundamental element of compressed air systems and of any industrial compressed air system. Why is it necessary to dry compressed air? In all systems for the genera on and distribu on of compressed air, a drying system is necessary for the following reasons: - Significantly extend the life of the pneuma c equipment connected to the system. - Reduce maintenance of the parts of the equipment connected to the compressed air system, with effects on reducing impacts on the environment and equipment management costs. - Processes such as sandblas ng and spray pain ng require very strict specifica ons regarding the maximum degree of humidity present in the compressed air. Otherwise the quality of the process is significantly affected, genera ng numerous waste and irreparably damaging the parts and/or products. - Food-type pneuma c transport processes (flour transport), or where in any case the transported materials (chip transport) cannot be in contact with humidity, in which it is essen al that the genera on of compressed air has a humidity level below thresholds check. - Glass blowing or PET bo le blowing processes, where it is essen al that the compressed air is free of humidity. - In the food industry in general where machines with compressed air movements are used and where it is essen al that humidity-free air is used. - Tex le and cosme cs industry on produc on plants. - In the pharmaceu cal industry, in the manufacturing of electronic chips, in the manufacturing and coa ng processes of op cs, and in the medical sector in general. How does a dryer work? The working principle of the dryers is as follows: 1- The incoming compressed air is cooled. 2- The humidity contained in the air is than condensate. 3- The air and humidity pass through a demister which captures the humidity that is collected. 4- The demister leave dry compressed air. Cooling is done through a refrigera on circuit that uses HFC or HFC-HFO refrigerant gases which have been included in the list of PFAS substances. The fundamental part of the machine (dryer) is the evaporator. To op mize the efficiency of the machine, we use a direct expansion evaporator, where the refrigerant gas is separated from the compressed air by a thin layer of aluminum which facilitates heat exchange. Why we choose the use of refrigerant gas HFC & HFC-HFO? Refrigerant gases today used in compressed air dryer applica on from Friulair (R134.a / R407C / R513A) have the following technical proper es: - They are not flammable (A1 classified) - Their opera ng pressure is rela vely low (lower than 30 barg on high pressure side) - They are not toxic - Cri cal point makes these refrigerant suitable also at tropical ambient, with good efficiency As far as Friulair know, there isn't a refrigerated compressed air dryer manufacturer who use any natural refrigerants like ammonia, hydrocarbons or carbon dioxide. Basically no alterna ves are available in our specific applica on. What are the available alterna ves without PFAS and what we have to do to use them? Available alterna ves whithout PFAS are following listed: - Oxygen dioxide - Ammonia - Hydrocarbons But all of them drives to drama c technology change and do not really preserve the environmental. Applicability to refrigerated air dryer of oxygen dioxide Actual heat exchangers and refrigerant circuit components are designed for drama cally lower opera ng pressure. The redesign of refrigerant circuit components is theore cally possible, but prac cal limits have to be considered: - The dryer cannot be used in climate-hot and tropical area - Dryer efficiency will rise drama cally in climate-hot and tropical area, this means that beside opera ng cost also environmental impact due to higher power consump on need to be considered - Service and maintenance of units at so high opera ng pressure is not easy and could be dangerous - The dryer cost will be drama cally higher CO2 at the end cannot be a solu on in dryer applica on. Applicability to refrigerated air dryer of ammonia Actual heat exchangers and refrigerant circuit are designed for different refrigerant gas. The redesign of refrigerant circuit components is theore cally possible, but prac cal limits have to be considered: - Copper is a widely used material in refrigera on circuit components (pipes, refrigerant compressor windings, valves...) and is totally not compa ble with the use of ammonia, it is needed to replace it with stainless steel - Actual evaporators are made in aluminum, and are not designed for the use with ammonia. A total re-design and the probable use of stainless steel heat exchangers due to aluminum incompa bility with ammonia has to be considered - Factory structure need to be reviewed considering the use of toxic refrigerant gases - Service and maintenance of the units as well as installa on area has to be considered as it will be not easy and could be dangerous - The dryer cost will be drama cally higher Ammonia at the end cannot be a solu on in dryer applica on. Applicability to refrigerated air dryer of Hydrocarbons Hydrocarbons has similar or even be er thermodynamics proper es compared to current refrigerant, but to use them in compressed air dryer applica on we have to consider that dryer usually are installed in close area, not outdoor. This means that par cular a en on to explosive mixture in case of leakages to the ambient has to be considered. Beside this, dryer compressed air heat exchanger today uses direct expansion technology, best technology from efficiency point of view. Direct expansion using flammable refrigerant cannot be an op on because a leakage between compressed air side and refrigerant circuit side drives to create an explosive mixture. A reasonable solu on could be the use of an intermediate heat exchanger. Comparison between current direct expansion solu on and new not direct expansion solu on is available in the sketch below: An efficiency analysis is available in the table below: Refrigerant gas Es mated refrigerant quan ty GWP Tons of equivalent CO2 Nominal compressed air flow Evapora ng temperature [C] Condensing temperature [C] Refrigerant compressor power consump on Water pump power consump on Total dryer power consump on Opera ng hours in 1 year Refrigerated air dryer life me TOT kWh required during dryer life R407C 3,7 kg 1774 6,56 25 m/min 1,0 (evaporator inlet) 40 (condenser outlet) 1,84 [kW] 0 [kW] 1,84 [kW] 8.000 10 years 147040 Conversion factor Power - CO2 according to ISPRA 2022 in Italy TOT CO2 released to the ambient during dryer life me due to power consump on 0,2605 38,3 t R290 1,5 kg 3 0,0045 25 m/min -5 40 2,24 [kW] 0,50 [kW] 2,74 [kW] 8.000 10 years 217203 0,2605 56,6 t CONCLUSION According to the above exercise, below there is a table that summarize the results Refrigerant GAS Refrigerant tons of CO2 Power consump on tons of CO2 R407C 6,56 38,3 R290 0,0045 56,6 This result drives to say that to achieve same impact to the environment a dryer today manufactured with R407C, has to release its refrigerant charge to the ambient approx. 3 mes. We have to consider that refrigerant circuit are manufactured with all the possible precau ons to avoid leakages to the ambient. To achieve this results Friulair use the best technology for leakage detec on, which is "helium leak detector". This technology is used on 100% of manufactured unit. It is impossible that a unit verified with this kind of technology will leak 3 mes in its life me to the ambient. Friulair experience is that leakages can happen much lower than 1 dryer every 1000 manufactured and just once in its life me. In conclusion, in dryer applica on there are no alterna ve to HFC or HFC-HFO refrigerant. More important is that the use of HFC or HFC-HFO refrigerant gas in dryer applica on is more "ecofriendly" than the use of a natural refrigerant. There is no reason to force the transi on to natural refrigerant. Friulair S.r.l. via Cisis 36 - 33052 - Cervignano del Friuli (UD) ITALY