8.5.3 Tscherning Tscherning is a company that specializes in demolition and environmental sanitation. Therefore, they do not receive waste containing CFC., but they do find it during demolition activities. According to Rasmus Krag, Development Manager at Tscherning, the waste is classified as hazardous and most likely sent to Fortum (the same company that receives CFC gas from H. J. Hansen), who can dispose of it (For reference, see mail reply in figure 27 in the appendix). Bachelor thesis 9 9.1 Technical University of Denmark - DTU Germany Ozone-depleting substances in Germany A report by the German environmental department (”Umweltbundesamt” or UBA for short) in 2012 estimated the ODS bank in insulation materials for German buildings and other constructions. The study focused on rigid XPS (extruded polystyrene) foam and rigid PU (polyurethane) foam. It took into consideration the following aspects: density, annual foam use (volume), market shares of the blowing agents, blowing agent amount in the insulation foams and loss of the blowing agents due to dispersion to the surroundings. In Germany, XPS foam was typically used in construction under the floor in buildings, in the basement floor and roof insulation. Figure 28 in the appendix, shows that from 1980-1989 CFC-12 was estimated to be the only blowing agent used in XPS foam, while towards 2005 other alternatives became more present. Figure 29 in the appendix, shows the development of the ODS bank (in ODP tonnes) in XPS insulation foam from 1965 to 2010. The increase in the ODS bank is caused by CFC being used as the only blowing agent from 1980-1989, while the stagnation towards the beginning of 1990 is caused by more ozone-friendly blowing agents being applied. The primary applications of rigid PU foam in Germany were district heating pipes and in the walls of buildings. Figure 30 in the appendix show that CFC-11 was the sole blowing agent used from 19801994, but since then other blowing agents became more present. Figure 31, shows a similar pattern as seen in figure 29, where the ODS bank increases from the mid 1960s and stagnates in the beginning of 1990, but in much greater quantities. It was estimated that the ODS bank in XPS insulation foams was approximately 43.7 kt ODS or 15,000 tonnes ODP in 2009 and the ODS bank for PUR foam was 117.5 kt ODS or 105,000 tonnes ODP. In total, the ODS bank in insulation foams was equivalent to 120,000 tonnes ODP (Umweltbundesamt, 2012). This means that PUR foam contain approximately 86% of all the ODS in ODP tonnes, while the rest can be expected to be contained in XPS foam. This means that the largest recovery potential lies within the PUR foam. Since the data was from 2009, the ODS bank can assumed to be lower in 2019, due to constant demolition and recovery of ODS-containing foam in Germany. Although the use of CFCs have been banned since 1995 in Germany, a report by LAGA (The German Working Group on Waste) in 2018 estimated that still half of the refrigerators in Germany contained substances with an ODP and a GWP. In Germany, the Clean Air Act regulates how refrigerators containing ozone-depleting substances should be treated through two steps (Bund/L¨anderArbeitsgemeinschaft Abfall (LAGA), 2018). Page 2 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Step 1: • Manual removal of certain components (this could refer to cables and wires) • Removal of the refrigerant from the cooling circuit • Degassing of the extracted refrigerant to separate oil and gas. • Oil and gas are placed in separate closed containers. • Removing the extracted compressors • Treatment of the gas Step 2: • Shredding of the refrigerator in a closed system • Recovery of the blowing agents from the insulation foam • Sorting of metal and plastic fractions These steps are very similar with H. J. Hansen’s procedure of handling CFC-containing refrigerators. First, components are removed from the refrigerators (could be cables and wires as in seen in H. J. Hansen). Then, the refrigerant is removed from the cooling system and degassed in order to separate the oil and gas. Like at H. J. Hansen, the oil and gas are placed in separate containers, the compressors are removed and lastly, the gas is incinerated according to Regulation (EC) no. 1005/2009. After extracting the oil and gas from the compressors, the refrigerator is shredded in a closed system in order to prevent CFC emissions to the atmosphere, which is required by law through the Clean Air Act. Metal and plastic are recovered and recycled at the end (Bund/La¨nderArbeitsgemeinschaft Abfall (LAGA), 2018). 9.2 Ozone protection regulation in Germany Germany’s national regulation from 1991 was the first to regulate the use of ODS. It was banned from 1995 to use CFC-11 and CFC-12 in insulation foams, release the substances to the environment and place them on the market. HCFC-22 was also banned by the beginning of 2000, whereas other HCFCs were not affected by this regulation. In 2006, this regulation was repealed and replaced by the Chemical Ozone Layer Ordinance (Chemikalien-Ozonschichtverordnung). The Chemical Ozone Layer Ordinance was made in order to comply with Regulation (EC) No. 2037/2000 and as of today, the Chemical Ozone Layer Ordinance in in compliance with current ODS regulation in the EU: Regulation (EC) No 1005/2009. The regulation covers the handling and recovery of waste containing ODS. In Germany, the owner of insulation foams containing controlled substances are responsible for the Page 3 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU recovery of them, however they may transfer the waste to third parties who can handle them. Manufacturers and distributors of the regulated substances are obliged to take them back after use or to take them to a third party appointed by them. Lastly, the Chemical Ozone Layer Ordinance also requires that recovery facilities report to the German EPA on the amounts and types of ODS they receive (Umweltbundesamt, 2012). In Germany, an act called ElektroG (Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act) holds manufactures and importers responsible for the handling and treatment of appliances containing ODS (ICF International, 2010). Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) have all enabled a ban on landfilling construction and demolition waste, which means that PUR/PIR (polyisocyanurate) insulation foam is separated from other fractions during demolition and the foam is sent for incineration at either municipal solid waste or hazardous waste incinerators. Recycling rates of PUR/PIR insulation foam in Germany is thus extremely low (ICF International, 2010). The German air pollution legislation that was mentioned earlier, Clean Air Act, requires a recycling rate of 90% at minimum for coolants in the cooling circuit, but does not provide any standards regarding the recovery of blowing agents used in foams. In practice, over 80% of ODS refrigeration and insulation foam are properly recovered from collected appliances (ICF International, 2010). 10 Austria Currently, there is no treatment of CFC gases in Austria. Fluorinated and non-fluorinated substances from coolants in refrigerators, coolants from air conditioners (R404a, R410a etc.) and CFCs are exported to Germany for destruction or used in the production of hydrochloric acid and/or hydrofluoric acid. An estimated amount of 15-30 tonnes/year are exported to Germany annually (For reference, see mail reply in figure 32 in the appendix). 10.1 Ozone protection regulation in Austria Austria announced early on to their industry that HCFCs were only a temporary replacement for CFCs and provided incentives for producers to adopt alternatives and therefore preventing a double phase-out of first phasing out CFCs and then implementing HCFCs and then phasing them out again for another alternative (European Commission, 2007). Towards the beginning of 1990, CFC was used as blowing agent in XPS foam, where HCFCs shortly replaced CFC until it was replaced by HFCs and CO2 as the blowing agents in the mid-90s (Eibensteiner, 2016). Austria was one of the first EU Member States to begin the phase-out of HCFCs. In 1995, the Austrian government put forward a legislation that banned the use of HCFCs in solvents Page 4 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU and in the production of insulation foam from the year 2000. However, the use of HCFCs in newly produced non-commercial refrigerators were banned from 1996 and from 2002 for commercial equipment. The regulation was stricter than the EU Regulation in several areas, specifically on the sale of products containing HCFCs. Furthermore, the Austrian government also banned the use of HCFCs for specific applications, although these are not mentioned (European Commission, 2007). Waste management regulations in Austria classify insulation foam containing CFC and HCFC in XPS and PU recovered during demolition as hazardous, which means that the foam must be treated according to Directive 2008/98/EC as shown in section 6.2.3 (ICF International, 2010). Along with Denmark and Luxembourg, Austria has set a minimum requirement of 90% for the recovery of ODS in refrigeration and foam in different appliances. For Austria, this requires that at least 115 gram of refrigerant per appliance and at least 240 gram of CFC-11 blowing are recovered per appliance during the recovery processes (ICF International, 2010). Due to a maximum TOC (Total Organic Carbon) content of 5% for the waste being landfilled in Austria, the landfilling of XPS insulation foam is banned (For reference, see mail reply in figure 32 in the appendix). 10.2 Ozone-depleting substances in Austria In 2006, Austria had collected and processed approximately 400,000 refrigerators containing ODS in closed systems so that the substances were not emitted to the atmosphere. Since 2004, the amount of collected and treated ODS refrigerators have been increasing, which is partially due to a legislation requiring refrigerators to be collected and treated at their end-of-life. The collection is free of charge and the substances in the insulation foam and coolants are extracted and destroyed in an environmentally safe manner. To ensure that the Austrian waste management companies are capable of properly handling the ODS-containing refrigerators their treatment processes must be tested on at least 1,000 devices. At least 90% of the CFC in the refrigerators must recovered during processing and the CFC content for recovered insulation foam has to be below 0.2% and below 0.1% for the compressor oil (European Commission, 2007). In 2013, the XPS that was used as insulation foam in the construction sector reached 24,000 tonnes/year. In 2015, around 2,000 tonnes of XPS was recovered. The recovery of installed XPS and EPS (expanded polystyrene) is expected to continue towards the end of this century, where in 2045 7,500 tonnes of XPS is expected to be recovered, which will also be the maximum amount. After application, the insulation foam contains between 6-11% CFC by mass. However, due to diffusion of the CFC, the concentrations might change over time. Different sources show discrepancy between Page 5 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU the retention time of the CFC. A XPS manufacturer estimated that the time is between 10-30 years, while another study stated that the retention time is between 50-200 years. If the latter is the case, then that would mean that the majority (or all) of the CFC would still be present at EOL (end-of-life) of the waste. At EOL, if the concentration of CFC, HCFC and HFC is higher than 0.1% then the XPS must be separated when reaching the destruction phase and treated as hazardous waste. E.g. in 2018 approximately 100 tones were incinerated (For reference see mail reply in figure 32 in the appendix). 11 Discussion In this section, the efforts associated with the recovery and destruction of ODS in different sectors as well as the recovery potential of ODS are examined. Additionally, the potential emissions savings (in ODP tonnes and KTCO2-eq.) through complete recovery and destruction is also investigated, as well as the costs (e/TCO2-eq. and e/ODP Tonnes) associated with the recovery and destruction of ODS in different sectors. Lastly, the destruction capacity of ODS is examined and whether or not the European Union does enough for the treatment of waste containing ODS. The majority of the data in this section comes from a report by ICF International in 2010: Identifying and Assessing Policy Options for Promoting the Recovery and Destruction of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and Certain Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (F-Gases) Banked In Products and Equipment. ICF International is a global technology and consulting company. 11.1 Technical feasibility on the recovery of ODS Technical feasibility refers to the ability of recovering ODS/HFCs at a reasonable level of effort and cost. When technical feasibility is assessed, two aspects are taken into consideration: the amount of ODS/HFCs remaining at EOL in the waste (also here considering diffusion of the ODS/HFCs over time), and also the amount of ODS/HFCs that is technically recoverable at EOL (also here considering any loses that might occur during recovery/separation and transport). Table 5 shows the amount of effort that is associated with the recovery of the ODS in a certain type of sector. The effort ranges from low to medium in the refrigeration sector, while in the construction sector, the efforts are generally high. This is because PU foams are sprayed onto the walls and have natural adhesive property, thus making it difficult to separate the foam from the walls during demolition. Furthermore, it is also possible that part of the ODS in the foam is released during separation, if more force is required to separate the foam and if the foam is damaged, then some of the gases might get emitted. These factors increase the effort level when recovering construction foam and ultimately reduces the amount of ODS recovered (ICF International, 2010). As described in section 8.3.1, the processes for the recovery of the ODS in refrigerators are relatively simple. Page 6 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Due to the high efforts associated with the recovery of ODS in the construction sector, the recovery potential can be expected to be lower than the refrigeration sector. This also means that in the future the effort level might decrease for the construction sector and the amount of insulation foam containing CFCs to be treated might increase over the decades due to technological development or alterations in current EU regulations regarding C&D waste. Table 5: Effort required to manage the banks containing ODS (ICF International, 2010). Two crosses in e.g. ’low effort’ and ’medium effort’ means that the effort required ranges from low to medium. Sector Low effort Medium effort High effort Domestic Refrigeration – Refrigerant X X Domestic Refrigeration – Blowing Agent X X Commercial Refrigeration – Refrigerant X X Commercial Refrigeration – Blowing Agent X X Transport Refrigeration – Refrigerant X Transport Refrigeration – Blowing Agent X Industrial Refrigeration – Refrigerant X Stationary Air Conditioning – Refrigerant X X Other Stationary Air Conditioning – Refrigerant X X Mobile Air Conditioning – Refrigerant X X Steel-faced Panels – Blowing Agent X XPS Foams – Blowing Agent X PU Boardstock – Blowing Agent X PU Spray – Blowing Agent X PU Block – Pipe X X PU Block – Slab X X Other PU Foams – Blowing Agent Halon – Fire Suppression X X X To improve the recovery potential of construction foam, a so-called” vacuum” technology could be utilized in the future. The technology has been used for removing asbestos-containing insulation foam from buildings, as the high-powered suction effectively detached the foam from walls. Due to the adhesive nature of PU foams, the technology might not be as effective as it is against asbestos Page 7 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU foam. Furthermore, if the vacuum technology were to be used, it is also important that the ODS from the insulation foam are not released during the detachment and, lastly, that the insulation foam is incinerated (ICF International, 2010). Table 6 shows estimates on how much blowing agent (on average) still remaining at EOL for construction foam, how much of the blowing agent that is technically recoverable at EOL and the total potential recovery at EOL. As seen in the table, sandwich panels and boardstock foam have the highest recovery potential at EOL, while spray foam and XPS foam boards have a total recovery potential of respectively 15.6% and 6.4% at EOL and therefore the recovery feasibility of those can be deemed low (ICF International, 2010). Table 6: Recovery potential of construction insulation foam (ICF International, 2010). The first column was calculated by multiplying the estimated original content of the ODS by the lifetime diffusion. The second column was based on assumptions of the blowing agent loses that occur during separation at EOL. The third column was calculated by multiplying column 1 & 2. Average Blowing Agent Remaining at EOL End-Use PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Continuous PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Discontinuous PU & PIR Rigid: Boardstock (FFL) PU Rigid: Spray foam XPS Foam Boards 11.1.1 70.5% 66.5% 57.25% 31.1% 12.75% Blowing Agent Technically Recoverable at EOL 90% 90% 70% 50% 50% Total Potentially Recovered at EOL 63.5% 59.9% 40.1% 15.6% 6.4% Recovery potential of all sectors Table 7 shows estimates on the recovery of refrigerants and blowing agents in different sub-sectors for EU-15 countries and EU-12 countries as well as how feasible it is to recover either the refrigerant/blowing agent ranked from high to low. Table 7: Recovery potential for refrigerants in cooling circuits and blowing agent in foams at EOL (ICF International, 2010). Total Potentially Sub-sector Recovered at EOL in EU EU-15 EU-12 End-Use Feasibility to Recover Refrigeration/AC Mobile AC Stationary AC Refrigeration Passenger Cars Buses Small Stationary Large Stationary (Chillers) Domestic Refrigerators & Freezers Small Commercial Medium/ Large Commercial 54% 54% 81% 76% NA 81% 67% 45% 45% 72% 67% NA 72% 57% High High High High High High High Page 8 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Refrigerated Transport - Land Refrigerated Transport - Ships Industrial Refrigeration 63% 57% 57% 54% 48% 48% High High High Foams Appliances Construction PU Rigid: Domestic Refrigerators/Freezers PU Rigid: Commercial Refrigeration PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Continuous PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Discontinuous PU & PIR Rigid: Boardstock (FFL) PU Rigid: Spray foam XPS Foam Boards 88% 79% 63% 60% 40% 16% 6% High High Medium Medium Medium Low Low EU-15 are the 15 ”old” Member States: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and UK (Jovi´c, 2012). EU-12 are composed of the ”newer” Member States and primarily Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia (Jovi´c, 2012). The recovery potential for EU-15 countries have been deemed higher than EU-12, which is because it is believed that the EU-15 countries, in general, have more improved treatment technologies than EU-12 countries (ICF International, 2010). For all refrigeration and AC, the feasibility to recover the refrigerants are deemed high due to three factors: the recovery requires low effort, recovery of refrigerants have been practiced over long time and there are several facilities in the EU that treat them (ICF International, 2010). Insulation foams in appliances like domestic refrigerators/freezers and commercial refrigerators also have a high feasibility to recover, due to existing infrastructure being in place that can recover the foam. However, as mentioned earlier, construction foam has several challenges when it comes to recovering the ODS at EOL: the effort level is high, lacking infrastructure to treat the construction foams and the recoverable blowing agent at EOL is relatively low (6-64%). This means that the feasibility to recover construction foam ranges from medium to low. Page 9 Bachelor thesis 11.2 Technical University of Denmark - DTU Recovery potential of ODS in banks from 2010-2050 The ICF International have also made some estimates on how much ODS and HFC in refrigeration/AC and in foams (tonnes) were expected to be technically recoverable by 2010, 2020 and 2050 in the EU-27. This is shown in table 8. Table 8: Recovery potential of different ODS in refrigeration/AC and insulation foams (tonnes) from 2010-2050 in the EU-27 (ICF International, 2010). 2010 2020 2050 Sector/Sub-sector Mobile AC: Passenger cars Mobile AC: Buses Small Stationary AC Large Stationary AC Refrigerators/ Freezers Small Commercial Refrigeration Medium & Large Commercial Refrigeration Refrigerated Transport (Land) Refrigerated Transport (Ships) Industrial Refrigeration Subtotal PU Rigid: Domestic Refrigerators/ Freezers PU Rigid: Commercial Refrigeration PU Rigid:Sandwich Panels – Continuous PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Discontinuous PU & PIR Rigid: Boardstock (FFL) PU Rigid: Spray foam XPS Foam Boards Subtotal TOTAL CFC HCFC HFC CFC Refrigeration/AC HCFC 98 3 0 60 276 18 0 0 2,667 451 0 122 4,144 132 12,173 1,526 84 366 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 267 1,520 0 11 0 0 466 35 766 556 4,864 182 111 2,439 22,676 Foams 2,935 258 574 HFC CFC HCFC HFC 4,040 156 26,472 3,449 20 608 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32,858 5,837 0 500 0 2,323 0 0 1,853 0 0 0 0 22 730 98 850 380 274 3,111 40,834 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 632 615 2,224 44,519 0 1,507 133 0 204 18 0 261 373 295 134 462 40 18 63 868 557 86 711 456 166 390 250 91 421 296 115 345 242 161 189 133 89 987 106 256 6,147 6,613 242 77 134 1,826 6,690 6 79 39 698 23,375 808 87 209 3,962 3,962 198 63 110 1,336 2,186 13 148 58 1,009 41,843 444 48 115 1,429 1,429 109 35 60 623 623 7 81 32 363 44,881 Regarding CFC, 466 tonnes CFC in the refrigeration sector was expected to be recovered in 2010, while in 2020 and 2050 zero tonnes are expected to be treated, which is due to refrigerators and freezers having a short life time (10-15 years can be assumed). However, as pointed out in section 8.3.1, H. J. Hansen receive between 900-1000 refrigerators daily as of 2019 and regarding table 4, the tapped amount of CFC-12 from the cooling circuit in 2016 was over 4 tonnes. Over the past years, 40% of the refrigerators they received still contained CFC (Personal communication with Trine Page 10 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Andersen at H. J. Hansen). Therefore, a recovery potential of zero for refrigeration in 2020 does not seem entirely realistic. Insulation foam in the construction industry is expected to take the longest time before there is no CFC present in the waste. This is due to buildings having a much longer lifetime than e.g. refrigerators. Furthermore, the amount of HFC recovered in refrigeration is expected to increase throughout the years, which is due to HCFCs being replaced with HFC as put forward in the Montreal Protocol (ICF International, 2010). Since table 8 is from 2010, it does not take into consideration the 2016 Kigali Amendment that was implemented to the Montreal Protocol regarding the phase-out of HFC. Non-Article 5 parties, including the European Union, must by 2036, meet an 85% reduction in the production and consumption of HFCs. Therefore, the recovery potential of HFCs in 2050 is likely to be much lower than presented in the table. The values in table 8 should also be seen in terms of how much effort is required to recover the refrigerant and blowing agents, as described in section 11.1. 11.2.1 Potential emission savings (ODP tonnes and KTCO2-eq.) by end-use The ICF International has also made estimations based on table 7 and table 8 to calculate the emissions that can potentially be saved by end-use in the different sub-sectors for 2010, 2020 and 2050. Table 9 shows the potential emission savings on an ODP-basis, while table 10 shows the potential emission savings on a GWP-basis. Table 9 shows that in 2010 over 14,000 ODP tonnes were technically avoidable by recovery/destruction of ODS waste at EOL in the EU-27. By 2020, the avoidable emissions have been reduced to less than one third of the 2010 saved emissions, while in 2050 the saved emissions are expected to be just 1/10th of 2010. The decreases can be explained by the increasing use of substances with an ODP of zero such as HFCs and cyclopentane, which are used as refrigerants (GE Appliances, 2011). In the future, it can be expected that the foam sector, both appliance and construction, will still contain ODS. Table 9: Potential emission savings (ODP tonnes) by end-use in different sub-sectors (ICF International, 2010). - means the value is 0. Sub-Sector Mobile AC Refrigeration End-Use Passenger Cars Buses Domestic Refrigerators/Freezers Small Commercial Medium/Large Commercial Emissions Savings Potential (ODP tonnes) 2010 2020 2050 98 3 276 25 15 - Page 11 Bachelor thesis Stationary AC Appliance Foam Construction Foam Fire Protection TOTAL Technical University of Denmark - DTU Refrigerated Transport—Land Refrigerated Transport—Ships Industrial Refrigeration Small Stationary Large Stationary (Chillers) PU Rigid: Domestic Refrigerators/Freezers PU Rigid: Commercial Refrigeration PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Continuous PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Discontinuous PU & PIR Rigid: Boardstock (FFL) PU Rigid: Spray Foam XPS: Foam Boards Fire Protection 13 42 31 147 85 2,957 596 910 454 1,004 115 264 7,047 14,082 1 40 5 1,518 306 745 371 822 94 216 4,118 205 41 409 204 451 52 119 1,481 Table 10 instead shows potential emission savings (KTCO2-eq.) through recovery/destruction of different end-uses at EOL. In 2010, over 101,000 KTCO2-eq. were expected to be avoided, while avoided GHG emissions increase in 2020 to 109,000 and decreases again in 2050 to 100,000. If recovery of all end-uses is completed, including of those with low recovery feasibility (e.g. PU Rigid: Spray foam and XPS Foam Boards as presented in table 7). In 2010, the construction foam sector accounted for approximately 16% of the potentially saved emissions on a GWP-basis, while in 2050 it is expected to only account for 7%. The major constituent is stationary AC, which consists 30% of possible saved emissions in 2010 and increases drastically to 70% in 2050 (ICF International, 2010). This means that in the future, the stationary AC sub-sector is the most important when it comes to reducing possible GHG emissions, although since the Kigali Amendment was not made until 6 years later after the report it makes the estimates more uncertain. Table 10: Potential emission savings (KTCO2-eq.) by end-use in different sub-sectors (ICF International, 2010). - means the value is 0. Sub-Sector Mobile AC Refrigeration Stationary AC Appliance Foam Construction Foam Fire Protection End-Use Passenger Cars Buses Domestic Refrigerators/Freezers Small Commercial Medium/Large Commercial Refrigerated Transport—Land Refrigerated Transport—Ships Industrial Refrigeration Small Stationary Large Stationary (Chillers) PU Rigid: Domestic Refrigerators/Freezers PU Rigid: Commercial Refrigeration PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Continuous PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels – Discontinuous PU & PIR Rigid: Boardstock (FFL) PU Rigid: Spray Foam XPS: Foam Boards Fire Protection Emissions Savings Potential (KTCO2-eq.) 2010 2020 2050 6,423 5,251 202 203 3,034 26 1,209 1,349 1,110 5,765 8,117 6,473 583 882 1,402 1,608 1,997 1,698 8,597 9,930 6,980 26,613 48,014 59,596 3,729 5,665 9,588 13,844 7,108 962 3,570 2,259 306 4,953 4,206 2,308 2,324 2,009 1,102 4,901 4,024 2,209 543 445 244 3,008 2,463 1,352 10,405 5,541 4,901 Page 12 Bachelor thesis TOTAL Technical University of Denmark - DTU 101,311 109,489 100,230 The recovery potentials of ODS and HFCs (both in KTCO2-eq and ODP-tonnes) in the EU are shown visually in figure 14, 15, 16 and 17. Note that the axis have been scaled for the EU-12 values for better readability. Figure 14 and 15 show estimates on the amount of recoverable ODS and HFC waste at EOL, in a greenhouse gas perspective, for EU-15 and EU-12 in 2010, 2030 and 2050. The figures show that stationary AC consists of the largest recoverable bank (in KTCO2-eq) for both EU-15 and EU-12 (although for EU-15 the recoverable bank is close to 5 times greater than EU-12’s). R410A is typically used in smaller stationary AC and has a GWP of 2088 (Linde Gas, 2019) and since the recovery potential of HFC in small stationary AC in 2020 is expected to be over 26,000 tonnes, then that could explain the high values seen here. The refrigerant sector and construction are also important when considering the GWP in EU-15. Figure 16 and 17 instead show the estimated amount of recoverable ODS waste in ODP-tonnes at EOL from the same years. The ODS that were typically used in fire protection equipment were halons, who have the highest ODP compared to the other ODS as seen in table 13. This means that back in 2010, fire protection had the highest recoverable amount in terms of ODP tonnes, while in 2030 and 2050 construction foam is expected to contain the largest amount of recoverable ODP tonnes. Again, figure 14 and 15 do not take into consideration the Kigali Amendment. Therefore, the values for the figures can be expected to lower than presented. However, the figures showing the recovery potential in ODP tonnes, should be accurate, as HFCs have an ODP of zero. Page 13 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Figure 14: Estimates on the amount of recoverable ODS & HFC containing waste at EOL (KTCO2-eq) from 2010-2050 in EU-15 (ICF International, 2010). Figure 15: Estimates on the amount of recoverable ODS & HFC containing waste at EOL (KTCO2-eq) from 2010-2050 in EU-12 (ICF International, 2010). Figure 17: Estimates on the amount of recoverable ODS containing waste at EOL (ODPtonnes) from 2010-2050 in EU-12 (ICF International, 2010). Figure 16: Estimates on the amount of recoverable ODS containing waste at EOL (ODPtonnes) from 2010-2050 in EU-15 (ICF International, 2010). Page 14 Bachelor thesis 11.3 Technical University of Denmark - DTU Costs of recovery and destruction of ODS The ICF report mentioned earlier also calculated potential costs associated with the recovery and the subsequent destruction of CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and halons in different areas, such as refrigeration and construction, which is seen in table 11. The costs are given in e per tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or e/ODP tonnes for the different substances. The table shows that the recovery and destruction cost for CFCs per tonnes CO2-eq for refrigeration are relatively small - less than e1.5/TCO2-eq and no more than e11/TCO2-eq for HCFCs and HFCs. The low costs associated with the recovery and destruction in refrigeration is due to recovering of the substances that are contained in the refrigeration requires low effort. In contrast, the recovery and destruction costs for foams in appliances are approximately 5 times higher, while in construction foam the cost is 13 times higher. For foam in appliances, the costs are higher due to the recovery of the blowing agent and for buildings, there is a much greater effort for the dismantling of the insulation foam (ICF International, 2010). It was also assumed that the recovery/destruction costs do not change over time, but, the costs are likely to decrease in the future due to new technologies presumably being developed, plus more experience is gained in the field, especially for the construction foam sector. The high costs associated with the recovery/destruction of the substances in ODP tonnes is because they have a much ODP than GWP. Table 11: Costs associated with the recovery and destruction of ODS in different sectors (ICF International, 2010). N/A = Not Available. e/TCO2-eq. e/ODP Tonnes End-Use CFC HCFC HFC Halon CFC HCFC HFC Halon Mobile AC Passenger Cars Buses Domestic Refrigerators/ Freezers Small Commercial Medium/Large Commercial 1.33 1.33 N/A N/A 10.85 N/A 10.85 N/A Refrigeration 14,100 N/A 14,100 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1.33 N/A 10.85 N/A 14,100 N/A N/A N/A 1.33 8.29 6.35 N/A 14,100 256,364 N/A N/A N/A 4.26 2.07 N/A N/A N/A N/A 131,733 Page 15 Bachelor thesis Refrigerated Transport - Land Refrigerated Transport - Ships Industrial Refrigeration Technical University of Denmark - DTU 1.33 8.29 6.35 N/A 14,100 256,364 N/A N/A N/A 4.12 2.56 N/A N/A 127,193 N/A N/A N/A 4.35 2.35 N/A N/A 134,581 N/A N/A Stationary AC Small Stationary Large Stationary (Chillers) N/A 8.29 7.77 N/A N/A 256,364 N/A N/A 0.95 4.20 4.40 N/A 7,206 129,918 N/A N/A Appliance Foam PU Rigid: Domestic R&F PU Rigid: Commercial Refrigeration 7.17 25.06 N/A N/A 33,000 392,079 N/A N/A 7.17 25.06 20.99 N/A 33,000 392,079 N/A N/A Construction Foam PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels Continuous PU Rigid: Sandwich Panels Discontinuous PU & PIR Rigid: Boardstock (FFL) 18.04 55.96 52.78 N/A 83,000 1,106,667 N/A N/A 18.04 118.57 52.78 N/A 83,000 754,545 N/A N/A 18.04 57.24 52.78 N/A 83,000 1,207,273 N/A N/A N/A 865.73 Fire Protection Fire protection 11.4 N/A 6.74 0.47 1.69 N/A N/A ODS destruction capacity in the EU The active commercial and non-commercial ODS destruction facilities in 2010 can be seen in table 12. As shown, not all Member States have ODS destruction facilities. In fact, only 12 out of the 27 member states (44%) have ODS destruction facilities, but it is also important to note that it is not necessary for every country to have an ODS destruction facility. The current number of facilities are, in fact not running at full capacity, so constructing more ODS destruction facilities would most likely be redundant. Additionally, many of the companies that manufacture refrigerators have sister facilities in other European countries, where the ODS/F-gases can later be sent for incineration. Lastly, there is also public mentality of ’Not in my back yard’ (NIMBY) as Page 16 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU people are in general opposed to having incinerators built in the vicinity (ICF International, 2010). 14 out of the 25 ODS destruction facilities have reported their destruction capacity, which in total corresponds to 130,000 tonnes annually. However, there are large differences between the facilities in the Member States. For example, SARPI Dorog Environmental, Limited has a destruction capacity of 20 tonnes/year, while Veolia in the UK has a destruction capacity of 66,667 tonnes/year. The low destruction capacity can be explained by the lack of other waste types being sent to the incinerator, as ODS are incinerated together with other waste types (for example there are regulations that says that 1% of the overall waste capacity can be ODS). See table 15 in the appendix for an overview of the different facilities ODS destruction capacity. The median of the destruction capacity for the 14 facilities is 1,300 tonnes/year while the average is 9,350 tonnes/year. Considering the median and average, the ODS/F-gas destruction capacity for all destruction facilities in the EU has been estimated to be between 145,000 tonnes/years and 225,000 tonnes/year. With regards to figure 8, it can therefore be assumed with certainty that the current capacity is more than sufficient, as for 2020 the total ODS in both refrigeration and foams is expected to be approximately 42,000 tonnes (ICF International, 2010). Lastly, there also exist a significant number of reclamation facilities across the EU (56 across 17 Member States as of 2010), who deal with used ODS/F-gases (ICF International, 2010). Table 12 also shows the Danish company Uniscrap A/S. Back in 2009, the company had a facility that dismantled appliances and destroyed refrigerants onsite, but they did not accept ODS and F-gases from outside sources for the sole purpose of destruction. Table 12: Overview of the commercial and non-commercial ODS destruction facilities in the EU. Commercial ODS destruction facilities receive ODS/F-gases from outside sources, while non-commercial facilities do not receive outside sources of ODS/F-gases for the destruction of them (ICF International, 2010). Member state Facility Commercial Destruction Facilities Austria Fernw¨arme Wien GmbH – EBS Belgium Indaver Poldervlietweg Czech Republic SPOVO A/S Fortum A/S Denmark Fjernvarme Fyn A/S Page 17 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Finland Ekokem Oy Ab SIAP France Tredi-Groupe CURRENTA GmbH & Co. OHG HIM GmbH GSB – Sonderabfall-Entsorgung Bayern GmbH Pfahler Mu¨llabfuhr GmbH Germany REMONDIS Industrie Service GmbH REMONDIS SAVA GmbH REMONDIS TRV GmbH & Co. KG Solvay Fluor (ODS/F-gas collected by RCN Chemie GmbH) Ecomissio Kft. Eszak-Magyarorsza´gi K¨ornyezetv´edelmi Kft.´ Hungary Gyo˜ri Hullad´ek´eget˜o Kft. (Waste Incinerator Ltd, Gy˜or) SARPI Dorog Environmental, Limited (previously ONYX Magyarorsza´g) Poland SARPI Dabrowa Gornicza Sp. z.o.o. Spain Kimikal S.L Slovakia Fecupral, Ltd. spol sro Pyros Environmental Ltd UK Veolia Non-Commercial Destruction Facilities Denmark Uniscrap A/S Germany Deuna Zement GmbH The large majority of ODS destruction facilities in the EU uses high temperature incineration in rotary kilns, which has a destruction efficiency of 99.999% (ICF International, 2010). The destruction cost of CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs ranges from e1.00-e10.00 per kg of bulk ODS/Fgases in the EU. The price variation is due to gas type, volume and if the costumer is short-term or long-term. Long-term customers who are regularly shipping large quantities of ODS/F-gases for destruction are generally charged less than short-term customers (ICF International, 2010). 11.5 Do we do enough? As presented, the treatment of waste containing CFC presents several challenges - for some greater than others. The refrigeration sector requires the least effort with respect to recovering and destroying the ODS and therefore, has lowest costs - ranging from 1.33 e/TCO2-eq. to under 11 e/TCO2-eq. depending on the substance that was used as presented in table 11. This means that the recovery potential of CFCs in refrigeration is Page 18 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU slowly reaching zero over time as more and more of the ODS is collected and destroyed. In return, this has resulted in an increase in the use of HFC as shown in table 8. However, the insulation foam in the construction sector requires much more effort. Due to the adhesive property, it makes it much more difficult to separate during demolition and furthermore, not all of the blowing agent will remain in the foam at EOL - some XPS foam boards only have under 13% of the blowing agent left, which in the end means that 6.4% of the blowing agent is recoverable at EOL. The costs for the recovery and destruction of construction foam is therefore much higher than refrigeration - ranging from 18.04 e/TCO2-eq. to 52.78 e/TCO2-eq. depending on the blowing agent used. In the future, the construction foam sector is expected to contain the greatest amount of ODP tonnes, as most of the ODS in the refrigeration sector is assumed to be recovered. In fact 54.5% of potentially saved ODP emissions origin from construction foam, while 44% origins from appliance foam in domestic and commercial refrigeration. Overall, this means that the European Union are making great effort towards recovering CFC waste from the refrigeration/AC sector, but are moving slowly towards recovering CFC in the foam sector, specifically in the construction sector. 12 Conclusion (Ideas for further studies as well) Page 19 Bachelor thesis Technical University of Denmark - DTU Page 20