Ben Adamson, F.AIRAH

Redynamics
Design of plantrooms for A2L refrigerants

The uptake of equipment using flammable A2L refrigerants raises questions that plantroom designers, familiar with HFCs and other non-flammable refrigerants, have not previously faced.

Risks of an A2L installation must be considered, using the AS/NZS 60079 family of standards, in the same way as for other flammable refrigerants. Failure to undertake a proper hazard assessment, or to ignore the flammability of A2Ls at the design stage, may lead to dangerous or illegal installations requiring expensive rectification.

This presentation will highlight issues that plantroom designers may not previously have faced, and approaches to achieving an economical and safe design.

Ben Adamson recently retired as Managing Director of Refrigeration Engineering International (REI), a company he started in 1987, and is now a private consultant. REI worked worldwide in process refrigeration onshore and offshore, specialising in cooling systems for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries. He has engineering degrees from the University of Adelaide and the University of NSW, and is a Fellow of AIRAH and Engineers Australia. 

Ben has published a textbook and many papers for international conferences, and serves on committees of Standards Australia (including ME-006 which produced the new AS/NZS817 and 5149 series of standards) and the International Electrotechnical Commission.