b'TRANSITION DES FLUIDES FRIGORIGNESAs the country makes good on its commitments to the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, it is introducing regulations that will curb the use of HFC in new equipment and move the industry towards more climate-friendly alternatives.Alors que le pays respecte ses engagementslgard de lAmendement de Kigali au Protocole de Montral, il instaure des rglements qui limiteront lutilisation des HFC dans les nouveaux quipements et inciteront lindustrieadopter des solutions de rechange plus cologiques.CFCs remained popular until the 1980s when they were found to be ozone-depleting substances. Here again, the industry was compelled to find a replacement in the form of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which were also eventu-ally phased out by 2020. To recap, says industry veteran Jim Thomas, President of Refrigerant Services Inc.: We went from CFCs to HCFCs, and then from HCFCs to HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) because they were non-ozone-depleting. But then, it was decided that these products had great global warming poten-tial, so we needed to move on to a new set of products. So thats sort of what were at right now, he continues. Were moving gradually from HFCs to lower-GWP products like hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs). On paper, the shift towards using low-GWP products makes sense, given todays climate change priorities. Doing so, however, means moving from fluids that are currently classified by ASHRAE as A1 (non-toxic, non-flammable) to alternatives that fall into the A2L category (non-toxic, but slightly flammable). This is an important distinction as it means shifting an entire industry towards materials that are not currently recognized by Canadian regulations.Spring 2024 Insight9'