Seminar on Environment and Development in Vietnam

Friday and Saturday, December 6-7, 1996

Common Room, University House,
and J G Crawford Building, National Centre for Development Studies,
Australian National University

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Hydrocarbon refrigerants: economic and environmental implication for China, India and SE Asia.

Emma Aisbett and Dr Pham Tuan,
School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry, University of New South Wales

Abstract

Ozone-depleting CFC refrigerants are banned by the Montreal protocol. Synthetic HFC refrigerants being promoted by the big chemical companies are very expensive and have large greenhouse potentials. Hydrocarbons (propane and pentane) are a cheap, plentiful and efficient alternative.

In this paper, population and economic projections are made for China, India and SE Asia, from which refrigerant consumption and release into the atmosphere can be calculated for the next 30 years. The economic and environmental consequences are then calculated. The method is encapsulated in an easy-to-use spreadsheet model. Calculations showed that the use of hydrocarbons will present huge advantages on all fronts.

Dr Pham Q. Tuan
Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering
University of New South Wales
Sydney 2052, Australia

Tel: +61 (2) 9385-5267
Fax: +61 (2) 9385-5966
Email: Tuan.Pham@unsw.edu.au
Web: http://www.ceic.unsw.edu.au/staff/tuan_pham/tpham.htm