Ho Chi Minh City, 15 September 2016: During two workshops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, UNIDO has presented final results from a two years project on applying propane industrial refrigeration units in 9 cold stores in Vietnam. shecco has been the policy advisory and communication partner for the project lauded as a success story for combining ozone layer protection with climate benefits.

The project entitled ‘Reducing greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance emissions through technology transfer in industrial refrigeration’, was initiated by UNIDO in 2014. Its major aim is to introduce 25 R290 (propane) industrial refrigeration units into 9 of Vietnam’s cold stores for the fisheries industry. As a potential model to emulate for future effective Public-Private Partnerships, the two-year project was only partly funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). Using co-financing contributions from the two industry partners, the Vietnamese government and UNIDO, the project was conducted in a cost-effective manner while delivering high-quality results.

The project combined three components into an effective toolset to fast-track the adoption of climate friendly refrigeration technology: policy and regulatory support, technology transfer, and awareness-raising and capacity-building.

shecco was selected as a project partner to conduct a comprehensive policy gap analysis, present best practice examples from other nations to the Vietnamese government, and recommend alterations to existing regulations and standards for a safe, efficient use of natural refrigerant-based technology on one side, and for a more effective control and reduction of high Global Warming Potential (GWP) substances on the other. shecco also took the role of international dissemination partner, being tasked with a wider promotion of the project’s result to the global community.

Celebrating a success story of combining ozone layer protection with climate benefits

“shecco is proud to be part of such an innovative project scheme to bundle the power of private and public sector organisations for the benefit of the Vietnamese industry looking for more energy-efficient, reliable and long term technology solutions to a looming HFC phase-down worldwide. It is a necessity to fast-track natural refrigerants now as the only truly future-proof choice and we are very pleased to hear that Vietnam has ambitious plans to move away from ozone-depleting substances directly to natural refrigerants in selected sectors”, Nina Masson, Chief Market Development Officer for shecco and International Expert for the project, said on occasion of the celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City. The two workshops in Vietnam on 13 and 15 September, respectively, brought together ministry representatives, cold store operators, educational bodies and international experts.

30% energy reduction with future potential of 45 million kWh savings

The R290 conversion project brought about an average power reduction of 30% in the cold stores involved. With cost savings per facility of around 18,000 USD per year, operators also improved work safety and comfort, product quality and reliability of operation as compared to their R22 equipment. End-users have already expressed their intent to continue using the R290 units by Zanotti in future installations.

Those savings, however, are just the tip of the iceberg. The current cold store volume in Vietnam is about 3.5 million m³, out of which 40% is running on R22. Assuming that 30% of R22 cold stores will be converted to HC, including 490,000 m³ of small cold stores with a 50m³ to 1,000m³ surface area, and the remaining will be converted to ammonia and HFC, it is estimated that annual power consumption reduction would be about 45 million kWh. This would translate to an R22 emissions reduction of about 63 T/year and a reduction in GHG emissions of about 143,000 T/year.

For this the volume of R290 adoption needs to be 150 times that of the current pilot projects. As a first priority, the Vietnamese government has therefore set out to contact 500 operators of fish processing facilities for their suitability to receive a preferential loan by the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund. This, the Vietnamese government hopes, will further support the country’s proactive stance on avoiding a transition to high-GWP substances. It is also looking into creating pilot projects for HC use in larger industrial equipment, and into CO₂/NH₃ industrial refrigeration systems to complement the range of HFC-free solutions.

Other items, addressed in the policy gap analysis carried out by shecco, are being proactively addressed. Technical standards for a safe handling of hydrocarbons, but also other natural refrigerants like CO₂ and ammonia, are to be developed in line with international standards. Next, a countrywide training programme is envisaged to familiarise technicians largely new to their use with flammable or high-pressure substances.

More information

An article about the project can be found in The Natural Voice #1 available for download for free from https://issuu.com/shecco/docs/tnv-mag-01.

Press Release shecco, 15.09.2016: 2016-09-15-Vietnam-UNIDO-R290-fisheries

About shecco

For the past 15 years market accelerator shecco has been active in helping bring climate friendly technologies faster to market. shecco supports over 150+ partners worldwide in the HVAC&R sector, where the focus is on sustainable refrigeration, heating & cooling technologies using natural refrigerants. shecco offers a variety of services in three areas: 1) media, including online industry platforms, magazines and a catalogue of dedicated research reports; 2) market development, including market research, consultancy and public affairs services, as well as special international projects; and 3) events, including international conferences and national workshops.

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