HRAI Convenes A2L Storage, Handling, and Transportation Working Group
On September 15, 2021, HRAI hosted a kickoff meeting for a brand new working group. With over twenty members volunteering to participate, the new working group will lead an effort to evaluate and determine the safe and reliable storage, handling, and transportation of A2Ls, i.e., low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants and pre-charged equipment.
Aniruddh Roy, Manager, Regulatory Affairs Engineer at Goodman Manufacturing, was approved by members to serve as Chair.
The A2L Storage, Handling, and Transportation Working Group was formed earlier this year and will focus specifically on the Canadian low-GWP refrigerant landscape.
The working group will study and review the federal and provincial regulatory environment, relevant codes and standards, safety and training concerns and work alongside AHRI, HRAIs American counterpart, to align best practices, codes and standards, and explore pathways towards regulatory harmonization where possible.
It will also seek to educate industry in potential differences and requirements in the storage, handling, and transportation of low global warming potential refrigerants.
As members may be aware, A2L refrigerants are a class of refrigerant that have lower toxicity and flammability than A2 or A3 refrigerants and are less harmful to the climate if by accident or by mechanical failure they are released into the atmosphere.
At the kickoff meeting, members approved a terms of reference, heard an update from AHRI’s Safe Refrigerant Transition Task Force on A2L refrigerants in the United States, and briefly touched on the future priorities of the working group as well as the main areas of interest and/or concern of members and the industry more broadly.
In three weeks, the working group will meet to discuss immediate tasks and priorities, key issues facing members, and potentially establish specified task teams to examine and research critical areas of interest in the storage, handling, and transportation of A2Ls in Canada.
For more information or if you wish to volunteer for HRAI’s A2L Storage, Handling, and Transportation Working Group, contact Stephen Chartrand at 1-800-267-2231 ext. 276, or email schartrand@hrai.ca.
Back to Newsletters
