Fugitive Emission Characteristics of HFC-134a from Waste Kimchi Refrigerator

Abstract

In 1995 Kimchi refrigerator was developed at first, and has used HFC-134a as refrigerant. Kimchi refrigerator has been made 1,044,694 on the basis of 2010, disposed about 160,000 per year. Although mobile air conditioning, commercial refrigerator, general refrigerator is regarded as a major source of HFC-134a, little information is available for its emission characteristics of HFC-134a. This paper addresses the fugitive emission factors of Kimchi refrigerator at use-phase and disposal-phase. The residual quantities of Korean-made fifty three waste Kimchi refrigerators were weighed using a commercial recover of refrigerants to determine the emission factors at the disposal-phase. On the other hand, the emission factors at use-phase were estimated from the residual quantities and operating times. The average residual rate of forty three scarp Kimchi refrigerators is determined to be 74.6± 5.2%. The emission factor at the use-phase is estimated to be 3.5±0.8%/yr as a result of using average age of 11.7 years and the average residual rate determined here. The emission factor at the disposal-phase is determined to be 31.3% after adopting 58% of the recycling rate of refrigerant reported by Recycling Center. We estimate 3.1 g/yr for the average emission quantity of HFC-134a per operating refrigerator, while 22.5 g for that per waste Kimchi refrigerator. Since the chemical compositions of refrigerant of waste Kimchi refrigerator were the same as those of new refrigerant, it is expected that the HFC-134a recovered from waste Kimchi refrigerator can be reused for refrigerant.