98-1

Planning 

Report

Economic Assessment

of the NIST Alternative

Refrigerants Research 

Program

Prepared by:

TASC, Inc.

for

National Institute of

Standards & Technology

Program Office

Strategic Planning and

Economic Analysis Group

January 1998

U.S Department of Commerce

Technology Administration
ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF THE NIST

ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS

RESEARCH PROGRAM

January 1998

Prepared under:

Contract No. GS-22F-0101B

for

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY

Program Office

Strategic Planning and Economic Analysis Group

Prepared by:

Matthew T. Shedlick

Albert N. Link

John T. Scott

Approved by:

David P. Leech

John F. Starns

TASC, Inc.

1101 Wilson Boulevard

Suite 1500

Arlington, VA 22209
i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................. 1

1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 3

1.1 NIST ............................................................................................................... 3

1.2 NIST Physical and Chemical Properties Division.............................................. 4

2. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW...................................................................................... 6

2.1 Business Environment: The Montreal Protocol................................................ 6

2.2 Industry Structure............................................................................................ 8

2.2.1 Refrigerant Manufacturers................................................................... 8

2.2.2 HVAC Equipment Manufacturers ....................................................... 10

2.3 Economic Importance of NIST’s Role in the Development of Alternative

Refrigerants..................................................................................................... 11

2.4 NIST Alternative Refrigerants Program Milestones.......................................... 14

3. ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK............................................................................... 16

3.1 Alternative Refrigerant Program Outputs......................................................... 16

3.2 Methodology for Collecting Economic Benefit Data......................................... 17

3.3 Survey Population............................................................................................ 18

4. INDUSTRY SURVEY............................................................................................ 19
ii

4.1 Survey Results................................................................................................. 19

4.1.1 Manufacturers of Alternative Refrigerants........................................... 19

4.1.2 Users of Alternative Refrigerants......................................................... 21

5. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 23

5.1 NIST Annual Expenditures.............................................................................. 23

5.2 Analysis of Cost and Benefit Data .................................................................... 23

5.3 Internal Rate of Return .................................................................................... 24

5.4 Implied Rate of Return..................................................................................... 25

5.5 Benefit-to-Cost Ratio....................................................................................... 26

6. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................... 27

APPENDIX A: TECHNICAL OVERVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE

 REFRIGERANTS ................................................................................ 29
iii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1 CFC Phase-Out Schedules.................................................................................... 7

A-1 The Vapor-Compression Refrigeration System ..................................................... 31

A-2 Ozone Depletion Potentials .................................................................................. 35

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1 Controlled Substances.......................................................................................... 7

2 Fluorocarbon Capacity ......................................................................................... 8

3 REFPROP Purchases (Refrigerant Manufacturers) ............................................... 9

4 Major Industrial HVAC Equipment Manufacturers............................................... 10

5 REFPROP Purchases (HVAC Equipment Manufacturers) .................................... 10

6 Program Milestones.............................................................................................. 15

7 Net Economic Benefits to Refrigerant Manufacturers ........................................... 20

8 Net Economic Benefits to Refrigerant Users......................................................... 22

9 Expenditures Associated with Alternative Refrigerants Research Conducted

at NIST................................................................................................................ 23

10 Net Industry Benefits from NIST-Conducted Research......................................... 24

A-1 Refrigerant Criteria............................................................................................... 31

A-2 CFC Applications................................................................................................. 33
1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducts research

into the chemical and physical properties of alternative refrigerants used to replace

chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)-based refrigerants. This case study assesses the economic

benefits to U.S. industry of the research and investment that NIST has made in this area.

Refrigerants are chemicals used in machines (such as air-conditioning systems)

that carry energy from one place to another. Until the past decade, most refrigerants used

throughout the world were made up of CFCs due to their desirable physical and economic

properties. However, some research has shown that the release of these CFC gases into

the atmosphere can possibly damage the ozone layer of the Earth. In response to these

findings, international legislation was drafted that resulted in the signing of the Montreal

Protocol in 1987, a global agreement to phase out the production and consumption of

CFCs and replace them with other compounds that would have less impact on the

environment.

In order to meet the phase-out schedule in the Protocol, it was necessary to

perform research into developing new types of refrigerants (called "alternative

refrigerants") that would retain the desirable physical properties of CFCs, but would pose

little or no threat to the ozone layer. Possible candidates for replacement must meet a

number of important criteria in order to be judged feasible as replacements.

With the timetable imposed by the Protocol as an incentive to develop new

alternatives to CFCs, NIST engaged in research that would allow industry to make the

switch to alternative refrigerants in a timely and economic fashion. NIST began by

identifying the basic requirements for new refrigerants according to the new rules, and

then started research on determining the physical properties of such candidate

alternatives.
2

The results of these research efforts were made available to industry. NIST most

effective form of information dissemination has been the REFPROP program, a computer

package that is available through NIST's Standard Reference Data Program. The

REFPROP program is used by both manufacturers and users of alternative refrigerants in

their respective manufacturing processes. A particular benefit of the REFPROP program

is the ability to model the behavior of refrigerant mixtures, which has proven to be a key

method in developing CFC replacements.

A survey of refrigerant manufacturers and users determined that NIST's research

has produced considerable benefits to industry. By comparing the industry benefits that

were listed by the firms surveyed with the funding stream of NIST's alternative

refrigerants research program, an internal rate of return for the program was calculated to

be at least 433 percent, with an implied rate of return of approximately 21 percent, and a

benefit-to-cost ratio of almost 4-to-1. These can be considered conservative estimates of

the total net benefits for two main reasons. First, in the absence of NIST involvement in

this area, heterogeneous sources of data for the physical properties of possible CFC

replacements would have been developed, leading to uncertainty and transaction costs

that could not be captured in the one-on-one industry surveys conducted for this

assessment. These potential costs were avoided by NIST's development of standards that

were available to all firms having a stake in the development and use of alternative

refrigerants.

Second, NIST provided detailed physical properties data in a timely fashion so

that the schedules laid out by the Montreal Protocol could be met by using new

refrigerants that worked relatively efficiently compared to the refrigerants they replaced.

It is possible that without NIST's research, moor poorly researched, less optimal

refrigerants could have been adopted for use, with lowered energy efficiency as a result.

The quantification of these energy cost savings were beyond the scope of this project.
3

INTRODUCTION

1.1 NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau

of Standards (NBS), was established by Congress in 1901 to support industry, commerce,

scientific institutions, and all branches of government. During its existence, NIST has provided a

wide range of products and services, including primary standards, reference materials,

performance prediction and measurement methods, conformance tests and interoperability

protocols, technical data certification, and measurement device calibration. NIST works with

universities, government, private sector laboratories, standards developing bodies, and regulating

bodies to establish and carry out its technical agenda.

NIST’s research laboratories develop and deliver measurement techniques, test methods,

standards, and other types of infrastructural technologies and services that provide a common

language needed by industry in all stages of commerce – research, development, production, and

marketing.

NIST is often called upon to contribute specialized research or technical advice to

initiatives of national importance. The U.S. response to the international environmental problem

of ozone depletion required such a contribution.

Historically, chemical compounds known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been used

extensively as aerosol propellants, refrigerants, solvents, and industrial foam blowing agents.

However, these CFCs can break down and react with ozone found in the upper atmosphere,

causing the ozone to decay.

Since 1987, the U.S. and other nations have forged international environmental protection

agreements in an effort to replace CFCs with alternative, more environmentally neutral chemical

compounds. NIST became involved in alternative refrigerant research in 1982 and has continued

to support U.S. industry in its development and use of CFC replacements. The Physical and

Chemical Properties Division of NIST’s Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory has been

the focal point for this effort.
4

1.2 NIST PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES DIVISION

The NIST Physical and Chemical Properties Division is part of the Chemical Science and

Technology Laboratory (CSTL). The mission of CSTL is to provide the chemical measurement

infrastructure to:

• Enhance U.S. industry’s productivity and competitiveness

• Assure equity in trade

• Improve public health, safety, and environmental quality.

CSTL’s goals are to:

• Establish CSTL as the pinnacle of the national traceability and

international comparability structure for measurements in chemistry,

chemical engineering and biotechnology, and provide the fundamental

basis of the nation’s measurement system

• Assure that U.S. industry has access to accurate and reliable data and

predictive models to determine the chemical and physical properties

of materials and processes

• Anticipate and address next-generation measurement needs of the

nation by performing cutting-edge research.

The Physical and Chemical Properties Division itself has over 40 years of experience in the

measurement and modeling of the thermophysical properties of fluids. The Division has

laboratories in Boulder, Colorado, and Gaithersburg, Maryland, which include a broad array of

experimental apparatus for performing measurements of the thermodynamic and transport

properties of fluids and fluid mixtures across a wide range of temperatures and pressures.

The Division has been heavily involved with refrigerants for approximately ten years.

Early work was performed in conjunction with the NIST Building Environment Division, which

resulted in the development of early computer models of refrigerant behavior. In addition,

research performed by Division members is regularly published in technical journals, and serves as

a basis for the updating of tables and charts in reference volumes for the refrigeration industry.

Research in alternative refrigerants can be broken down into the following three areas:

• Studying how man-made chemicals affect the atmosphere. This is

called “understanding the problem” by NIST personnel
5

• Studying the chemical and physical properties of alternative

refrigerants

• Studying how to place chemicals in machines.

The latter two areas are referred to by NIST personnel as “solving the problem.” Of the

three areas, the Physical and Chemical Properties Division has been involved mainly in the second

area, studying the properties of refrigerants.1

 

1 For an overview of the basic technology of refrigeration and the properties of various refrigerants, see

Appendix A.
6

2. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

2.1 BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT: THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL

The main reason for the refrigerant industry’s switch from CFCs to alternative refrigerants

was the issuance of the Montreal Protocol of 1987 and its subsequent amendments. The Protocol,

formally known as “The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer,” is the

primary international agreement providing for controls on the production and consumption of

ozone-depleting substances, such as CFCs, halons, and methyl bromide. The Montreal Protocol

was adopted under the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and

entered into force in 1989.

The Protocol outlines a phase-out period for substances such as CFCs. As of June 1994,

136 countries had signed the agreement, including practically every major industrialized country

and most developing countries.

Every year, the Parties to the Protocol meet to review the terms of the agreement and

decide if more actions are to be undertaken. In some cases, they update and amend the Protocol.

Such amendments have been added in 1990 (London Amendment) and 1992 (Copenhagen

Amendment). These amendments accelerated the phase-out of controlled substances, added new

controls on other substances (such as HCFCs), and developed financial assistance programs for

developing countries.

The main thrust of the original Protocol was to delineate a specific phase-out period for

“controlled substances,” i.e., CFCs and halons. Table 1, from Annex A of the Protocol, lists these

substances and places them into two groups, I and II. Under Article 2 of the Protocol, a separate

phase-out rate was established for each of the two groups. For Group I substances, the phase-out

schedule calls for production and consumption levels to be capped at 100 percent of 1986 levels

by 1990, with drops to 80 percent of the 1986 levels by 1994 and to 50 percent by 1999.
7

Table 1: Controlled Substances

Group Controlled Substance

OzoneDepleting

Potential

Group I CFCl3 (CFC-11) 1.0

CF2Cl2 (CFC-12) 1.0

C2F3Cl3 (CFC-113) 0.8

C2F4Cl2 (CFC-114) 1.0

C2F5Cl (CFC-115) 0.6

Group II CF2BrCl (halon-1211) 3.0

CF3Br (halon-1301) 10.0

C2F4Br2 (halon-2402) TBD

Source: Montreal Protocol, Annex A, 1987.

Further amendments to the Protocol in 1990 and 1992 called for acceleration of the phaseout process (see Figure 1), so that a total phase-out of CFC production would be achieved by

January 1, 1996. Figure 1 shows how the initially longer phase-out period of the 1987 Protocol

was changed from an eventual maintenance level of 50 percent of 1986 levels by 1999, to a

complete phase-out by 2000, and finally to a complete phase-out by 1996.

Figure 1: CFC Phase-Out Schedules

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Year

1992

1990

1987

Source: NIST documents

Although the thrust of the initial legislation was to force an end to CFC use and move

parties to the Protocol toward less disruptive alternatives such as HCFCs

(hydrochlorofluorocarbons) and HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), amendments such as the

Copenhagen Amendment mandate further drops in production of HCFCs. The Copenhagen
8

Amendment requires a phase-out schedule for HCFC production similar to that for CFCs, over a

longer time period, to end in 2030. The purpose is to allow parties to the Protocol to move off of

CFCs by switching to HCFCs as an interim measure, but eventually to move off of HCFCs

altogether and use HFCs for their refrigerant needs.

Other country-specific legislation is also significant in this area. The U.S. Clean Air Act

amendments of 1990 enacted numerous changes in environmental laws, and mandated a stricter

CFC phase-out rate than the London Amendment. The London Amendment called for a complete

phase-out of CFCs by 2000, but the Clean Air Act moved this up to 1996 (the Copenhagen

Amendment also calls for 1996 as the end of the phase-out period).

The European Community established a phase-out schedule of its own in 1994 which

called for a faster phase-out period than the Copenhagen Amendment. The end year for the 1994

European Schedule was 1995.

2.2 INDUSTRY STRUCTURE

Generally, the alternative refrigerant industry consists of two types of firms: (1) refrigerant

manufacturers that produce the alternative refrigerants, and (2) heating, ventilating, and air

conditioning (HVAC) equipment manufacturers in whose machines the alternative refrigerants are

used. These were the industry segments targeted for surveying.

2.2.1 Refrigerant Manufacturers

This industry grouping consists of firms that manufacture a wide range of chemicals, most

of which are not related to alternative refrigerants. The six main manufacturers of alternative

refrigerants are: DuPont, AlliedSignal, Elf Atochem, LaRoche, ICI, and Ausimont (see Table 2).

Table 2: Fluorocarbon Capacity

Firm

Production Capacity

(millions of lbs/year)

DuPont 550.0

AlliedSignal 345.0

Elf Atochem 240.0

LaRoche 60.0

ICI Americas 40.0

Ausimont USA 25.0

Source: Chemical Marketing Reporter, January 30, 1995
9

Most of these firms have purchased multiple versions of the REFPROP program since its

inception. Table 3 shows that DuPont leads in this category, with 20 versions of REFPROP

(either copies of the original program or upgrades) in total. Next are AlliedSignal with 13

versions and Elf Atochem, with 10 versions, followed by ICI with six and LaRoche with three.

Ausimont has not purchased any versions of REFPROP. These firms have also made use of the

infrastructure research that NIST has performed in alternative refrigerants for their own

development of proprietary refrigerant products. In addition, Dupont, AlliedSignal, Elf Atochem

and LaRoche are the only firms still allowed to manufacture CFCs in the U.S.

Table 3: REFPROP Purchases (Refrigerant Manufacturers)

Firm REFPROP Purchases

DuPont 20

AlliedSignal 13

Elf Atochem 10

ICI Americas 6

LaRoche 4

Ausimont USA 0

Source: NIST REFPROP Purchasers Database, 1996

Each of these firms markets its own brand of refrigerants. For example, DuPont’s

alternative refrigerants are sold under the Suva brand, while Elf Atochem sells the FX line (such

as FX-10 and FX-56), and AlliedSignal markets AZ refrigerants (such as AZ-50).

The precise market shares of the alternative refrigerant market are not publicly available.

However, since 1976, the fluorocarbon industry itself has voluntarily reported to the accounting

firm of Grant Thornton LLP the amounts of fluorocarbons produced and sold annually, and this

information is published in combined form.2 Although the combined data do not allow for the

calculation of market shares for each firm, the list of firms reporting gives a good approximation

of the leaders of this industry. In addition to the firms listed above, five other firms or

associations of firms provide fluorocarbon production and sales information to Grant Thornton.

These firms are: Hoechst AG (Germany), the Japan Fluorocarbon Manufacturers Association

(Japan), Rhône-Poulenc Chemicals, Ltd. (U.K.), Société des Industries Chimiques du Nord de la

Grèce, S.A. (Greece), and Solvay S.A. (Belgium).

 

2 “Production, Sales and Atmospheric Release of Fluorocarbons Through 1994,” AFEAS (Alternative

Fluorocarbons Environmental Acceptability Study), Washington D.C., October 1995.
10

Collectively, this industry is a primary beneficiary of the research that NIST has done in

alternative refrigerants. The research team decided to survey the top five firms from Table 3 for

the benefits of NIST research. The survey candidates were chosen because they have relatively

high levels of fluorocarbon production capacity, they have all purchased copies of the REFPROP

program, and they all are either U.S. firms or have a strong U.S. market presence.

2.2.2 HVAC Equipment Manufacturers

Firms in this industry are primarily engaged in the manufacturing of commercial and

industrial refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment. Such equipment is used at the local

supermarket, in office buildings, stores, shopping malls, hospitals, and homes.

Major firms in this industry include Carrier, Trane, and York. Their workforce levels and

sales figures are listed in Table 4. Through the 1980s, the U.S. HVAC equipment industry

structure changed only slightly, with the number of firms increasing from 730 in 1982 to 736 in

1987.3 The largest seven of them held 72 percent market share in the U.S.

Table 4: Major Industrial HVAC Equipment Manufacturers

Firm Workforce Sales ($B)

Carrier 28,000 $3.80

Trane 13,000 $1.42

York International 11,500 $1.60

Source: Encyclopedia of American Industries, 1994

There are many other smaller HVAC equipment manufacturers represented among

REFPROP purchasers. The number of REFPROP purchases (either copies of the original

program or upgrades) by the larger equipment manufacturers is shown in Table 5.

Table 5: REFPROP Purchases (HVAC Equipment Manufacturers)

Firm REFPROP Purchases

Copeland 8

York 7

Carrier 5

Trane 5

Thermo-King 1

Tecumseh 1

Source: NIST REFPROP Purchasers Database, 1996

 

3 Hillstrom, Kevin (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Industries, Volume 1: Manufacturing Industries, p. 1005,

Gale Research, Inc., New York, 1994.
11

Representatives from the six HVAC equipment manufacturing firms listed in Table 5 were

contacted and interviewed in order to provide cost and savings information relevant to the

economic analysis conducted by the research team.

2.3 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF NIST’S ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS

NIST’s involvement in technology development and diffusion projects is predicated on

the existence of market failures – barriers to the appropriate level and timing of investment in

technology.4 NIST becomes involved in specific technology initiatives because of these routine

barriers to technology development and diffusion.

One such barrier arises from the very nature of NIST’s expertise in the development and

maintenance of measurement standards, evaluated data, and definitive methodologies for

determining quality. The technology that derives from NIST’s expertise is often most effective

only when shared widely. Due to the implicit “publicness” of such technology it receives little

private sector support. While important to firms’ research, and often to their ability to market

“compatible” goods and services, the anticipated ability to capture sufficient returns on

investments acts as a strong disincentive to developing these technologies. Alternative sources of

these “infrastructure technologies” are often sought by industry (e.g., through research joint

ventures, cooperative research and development agreements, and other forms of collaborative

research). For such reasons, NIST laboratories are often called upon to participate in technology

initiatives of national importance.

NIST involvement in alternative refrigerants research demonstrates the complex and

fundamental role that the NIST laboratories often play in facilitating technological progress.

Market failures commonly arise in connection with environmental problems. Generally speaking,

these problems arise because actions taken by individuals (or organizations) have unintended

adverse spillover effects on others. Global environmental problems are further complicated by the

fact that the individuals involved often are scattered throughout many nations. International

cooperation is required to solve such problems.5

 

4 See Gregory Tassey, The Economics of R&D Policy (New York: Quorum Books, forthcoming 1997); and

Technology and Economic Growth: Implications for Federal Policy, National Institute of Standards and

Technology Planning Report 95-3, October 1995.

5 Economic Report of the President, U.S. Government Printing Office, February 6, 1990, (p. 207).
12

Suspected ozone depletion of the upper layer of the earth’s atmosphere is such a problem.

CFCs have long been a concern for U.S. environmental policy makers. In 1978, the U.S. banned

the use of CFCs as aerosol propellants, a use for which substitutes were readily available.

However, the use of CFCs for other applications, such as automotive and residential airconditioning systems, refrigerators, and fire extinguishers, continued to grow.

Starting in 1982, NIST’s efforts focused on characterizing the chemical properties of

alternative refrigerants and how these refrigerants performed when mixed with other refrigerants.

These efforts merged with private sector and university efforts to address potentially very costly

economic disruptions.6 According to interviews with industry and university researchers, NIST

served numerous functions that were important to the timely, efficient implementation of the

international agreement to phase out CFCs. That is, without NIST’s participation, it is unlikely

that the market alone would have been able to accomplish this important objective nearly as well.

Our economic rate-of-return calculations (presented in chapter 5) indicate that NIST’s

participation afforded an economical solution to the problems of transitioning from ozonedepleting refrigerants.

NIST’s participation also affected the timeliness of the private sector’s reaction to the

Montreal Protocol’s phase-out plan. According to Congressional testimony, NIST efforts were

very important in this respect:

Under normal circumstances our industry could do the necessary

research and testing without any assistance, with equipment

manufacturers and refrigerant producers working together. But there

is too much to be done in a short time, to test and prove all of the

candidate refrigerants, select the most suitable and efficient ones for

various applications, design and test new equipment, and retool for

production. The process takes time – and money. Depending on the

type of equipment, normally it would take 5-10 years, even after a

refrigerant is available, to make appropriate design changes and

thoroughly field test a new product before it is introduced

commercially.7

 

6 The economic costs of phasing out CFCs were estimated in the billions of dollars and these estimates were

based on assumptions concerning the availability of substitute technologies. (See Economic Report of the

President, U.S. Government Printing Office, February 6, 1990, p. 210). Industry interviews confirm that

NIST’s alternative refrigerants research was an important part of helping make these alternatives feasible.

7 Testimony of Arnold Braswell, President of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), Hearing

before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House

of Representatives, 101st Congress, First Session, Y4.En2/3:101-87, May 15, 1989.
13

It is also important to understand NIST’s role in the system-like complex that is

increasingly typical of technological progress. Very often government, private sector, and

university research efforts pursue complementary lines of work that result in technological

progress that would not occur if these cooperative efforts had not taken place.8 NIST’s

alternative refrigerant research provides a good example of this phenomenon. Industry

representatives postulated that while the majority of work necessary to effect a transition to new

CFC refrigerants had to be performed by industry, government supported research would play a

critical role in the initial stages.9

NIST’s alternative refrigerants research also supports the basic research facets of

technology development typically undertaken by universities. University researchers recognize

NIST’s unique ability to provide consistent data on a wide range of fluids in a timely manner,10

view this work as complementary to their own research,11 and use it as a foundation for further

research.12 Mark Menzer of ARI remarked:

We had been using CFCs forever, and now we have to get rid of them on short

order. We knew we would need data, high-quality data, since small design errors

based on the data can lead to big miscalculations about a cooling unit’s efficiency

and cost. We have used NIST data and the REFPROP program as the standard.

We have used this information to make important decisions. Without NIST we

would have gotten less detailed data, which would have meant a lot more

expensive, time-consuming engineering work to produce hardware. It would have

cost us millions more.13

Menzer also added that without NIST and REFPROP serving as a common source of data

for the industry, each company probably would make different choices about refrigerants, a

scenario that would lead to a technical “Tower of Babel” for the maintenance and repair

community.

 

8 See Link, Albert N., and Gregory Tassey, Strategies for Technology-based Competition: Meeting the New

Global Challenge (Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath, 1987) and Gregory Tassey,

Economics of R&D Policy, Quorum Books, 1997.

9 Braswell, ibid.

10 Interview with representative of the Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Center, University of Illinois, May 9,

1997.

11 Interview with representative of the College of Engineering, University of Idaho, May 19, 1997.

12 Interview with representative of the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, University of Maryland,

May 16, 1997.

13 Cited in the “Work by the NIST Physical and Chemical Properties Division on Alternative Refrigerants” data

package provided by NIST.
14

Finally, NIST’s alternative refrigerants program appears to offer an example of another

important “market-perfecting” function: reducing transaction costs through its dissemination of

reliable data (and/or evaluation methodologies). Industry recognizes NIST’s technical capabilities

to cover a wide range of chemical properties with a high degree of accuracy. According to one

industry advocate of NIST’s involvement in refrigerants research, “NIST’s research would

become the industry standard ... and would reside in the public domain, allowing for access by a

wide range of users.”14 This, in turn would reduce total costs associated with duplicative private

sector research as well as reduce transaction costs associated with effectively communicating such

data to the market. According to another chemical industry representative, the alternative

refrigerants data provided by NIST were key in helping industry design equipment to handle new

fluorocarbons.15 Equipment designers, too, rely on NIST as an authoritative source of

information. Prior to the availability of REFPROP, refrigeration equipment manufacturers relied

upon technical information from chemical manufacturers but were subject to the risks and costs of

data variability among chemical providers, especially for newer refrigerants.

2.4 NIST ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS PROGRAM MILESTONES

While NIST considered research into refrigerants as far back as 1982, NIST did not

establish a formal research program into alternative refrigerants until 1987, after both the passage

of the Montreal Protocol and the publication of the McLinden and Didion paper (“Quest for

Alternatives”). NBS Technical Note 1226 (“Application of a Hard-Sphere Equation of State to

Refrigerants and Refrigerant Mixtures”) by Morrison and McLinden in 1986 provided the initial

basis for the REFPROP program, first released in 1990 and subsequently updated four more

times. Major milestones in NIST’s alternative refrigerants program are listed in Table 6.

 

14 Letter from Joseph Steed, Environmental Manager of DuPont to Stephen Anderson, Senior Economist of EPA,

March 24, 1988.

15 Letter from Donald Bivens of DuPont to Richard Kayser of NIST, May 12, 1994.
15

Table 6: Program Milestones

Year Events Legislation Publication

Release

of

Data

Contract/

Agreement

Internal

Event

1982 NIST begins early work on looking at alternative

refrigerants.

•

1986 NBS Technical Note 1226 published – formed the initial

basis for the REFPROP program.

•

1987 Montreal Protocol signed. •

“Quest for Alternatives” by Mark McLinden and David

Didion published in the ASHRAE Journal.

•

1989 NIST’s Long-Range Plan on Alternative Refrigerants

completed.

•

Definitive publication on the properties of R134 and

R123.

•

First mass-mailing of NIST technical results completed. •

1990 London Amendment to Montreal Protocol signed. •

Clean Air Act amendments passed. •

Version 1.0 of REFPROP released (01/90). •

Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute (ARI) signs

agreement to distribute REFPROP to its member

companies.

•

1991 Version 2.0 of REFPROP released (02/91). •

Version 3.0 of REFPROP released (12/91). •

1992 Copenhagen Amendment to Montreal Protocol signed. •

Work begun for the Air Conditioning & Refrigeration

Technology Institute (ARTI).

•

ARTI adopts REFPROP as the source for

thermophysical/thermodynamic properties for its

Evaluation Program.

•

1993 First contract for ARTI completed by NIST. •

ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals revised. •

Version 4.0 of REFPROP released (11/93). •

1994 Second contract for ARTI completed by NIST. •

1995 CRC Handbook for Alternative Refrigerant Analysis

published.

•

1996 Version 5.0 of REFPROP released (02/96). •

Third contract for ARTI completed by NIST. •
16

3. ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK

In this chapter, we explain the framework for capturing and quantifying the economic

effects of NIST’s alternative refrigerants research. The framework entails the identification of key

technical outputs, the development of an approach to ascertaining quantitative estimates of the

economic value of these technical outputs, and identification of the relevant survey population.

3.1 ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANT PROGRAM OUTPUTS

NIST’s research into alternative refrigerants has produced technical outputs in the

following five areas:

• Extensive measurements and numerous high-accuracy models for the

thermodynamic and transport properties of pure alternative

refrigerants and refrigerant mixtures, resulting in numerous

publications in the archival literature

• An extensive update of the tables and charts in the American Society

of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers

(ASHRAE) Handbook of Fundamentals – a reference volume

distributed to over 50,000 practicing engineers worldwide. This has

been referred to as “the Bible” of the industry by a number of

independent sources

• Participation and leadership of international forums charged with

assessing the state of the art and arriving at international standards

for refrigerant properties (e.g., the United Nations Environment

Programme, International Energy Agency Annex 18)

• A comprehensive analytical database for alternative refrigerants

published by CRC Press

• REFPROP, an electronic database which calculates the properties of

41 pure refrigerants and mixtures with as many as five components.

REFPROP has become the de facto standard for the refrigeration

industry. ARI (the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute) and

the Electric Power Research Institute adopted it as the primary

source of properties data for their Alternative Refrigerants Evaluation

Program. The NIST Standard Reference Data Program has sold over

500 copies of REFPROP since the first version came out in January

1990.
17

NIST researchers have communicated the results of much of this research in over 140

published articles and papers over the period 1986-1996.16 Of the five areas listed above, key

NIST personnel indicated that the most important outputs were the measurements and models,

the update to the ASHRAE Handbook, and the REFPROP program.

3.2 METHODOLOGY FOR COLLECTING ECONOMIC BENEFIT DATA

To estimate the economic impact of NIST’s research program in alternative refrigerants

we utilized an approach adopted from evaluations of other public investments in

infratechnology.17 Specifically, research costs were compared to an estimate of the benefits

received by industry using a hypothetical, counterfactual experiment. The experiment assumed

that the first-level economic benefits associated with the NIST-conducted research program on

alternative refrigerants could be approximated in terms of the additional costs that industry would

have incurred in the absence of the NIST-conducted research. In other words, these are the costs

avoided by industry due to the existence of the NIST-conducted research program and the

availability of information or products from that program.

The counterfactual experiment is used because this case study lacks comparable baseline

observations. In other words, it is not the case that some firms in the refrigerant industry, broadly

defined, relied upon research results emanating from research conducted at NIST and others did

not. If that were so, then one could compare the production-related efficiency between the two

groups to ascertain a first-order measure of the added value of the NIST-conducted research. As

discussed above, industry was forced, as a result of the Montreal Protocol, into a situation where

it had to respond to mandated guidelines in a short period of time. As such, firms in the industry

relied upon the extant knowledge base at NIST since no alternative knowledge base existed at

that time.

Previous experience in gathering information related to the economic benefits associated

with NIST research suggests that the most efficient, and therefore presumably most accurate,

 

16 “Publications Concerning Alternative Refrigerants, 1986-1995,” Physical and Chemical Properties Division,

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland and Boulder, Colorado (last updated

8/16/96).

17 See Gregory Tassey, The Economics of R&D Policy (New York, Quorum Books, 1997); Albert N. Link,

Evaluating Public Sector Research and Development (Praeger, New York, 1996); and Gregory Tassey, Rates

of Return from Investments in Technology Infrastructure, NIST Planning Report 96-3, June 1996.
18

means to collect data is through semi-structured, interactive telephone interviews. Hence, we

chose that mode of data collection for this case study.

3.3 SURVEY POPULATION

Two groups of potential first-level users of NIST’s research were identified with the

assistance of individuals within the Physical and Chemical Properties Division of the Chemical

Science and Technology Laboratory at NIST. The first group consisted of the five major

domestic manufacturers of alternative refrigerants: DuPont, Elf Atochem, ICI Americas,

AlliedSignal, and LaRoche. This group of five refrigerant manufacturers represents about 90

percent of the industry, as approximated in terms of production capacity. The second group

consisted of the six major domestic users of refrigerants: York International, Thermo-King,

Copeland, Tecumseh, Carrier, and Trane. This group of six manufacturers represents over 70

percent of the industry, as approximated in terms of manpower levels. However, because no

information was available as to how representative the group of eleven companies is in terms of

benefits received, we did not attempt to extrapolate benefits from the sample of eleven companies

to the entire industry.18

 

18 Based upon our interviews (discussed below), it is very clear that users of REFPROP cannot be characterized

by size, market share, or other obvious structural features. Thus, there is no sound methodological foundation

for extrapolating our sample results to the total population. While such an extrapolation is mathematically

possible, because of the diversity of REFPROP users, the results would be highly speculative.
19

4. INDUSTRY SURVEY

4.1 SURVEY RESULTS

Separate interview guides were prepared for the five manufacturers of refrigerants and six

users of refrigerants. Previous experience by the TASC team in collecting economic benefit data

associated with the use of infratechnology research dictated that these interview guides only

include broad topics of interest. Through verbal interactions with the industry respondents,

certain areas would be explored more heavily than others as the situation dictated.

Background areas that were discussed with both the manufacturers and the users of

alternative refrigerants focused on the extent to which they anticipated the Montreal Protocol,

their in-house research programs, and their familiarity with REFPROP. As discussed in the

following sections, more specific questions were addressed to manufacturers and to users. Each

company that was interviewed was asked a common question: “Absent NIST’s activities, what

would your estimate be of the additional man-years of research you would have needed in order

to achieve your current level of technical knowledge or ability, and how would these man-years of

research have been allocated over time?” Follow-up questions focused on the value of a fullyburdened man-year of research and the value of supporting research equipment.19

4.1.1 Manufacturers of Alternative Refrigerants

The five manufacturers of refrigerants anticipated the Montreal Protocol and were,

generally, supportive of it for environmental and health reasons. The larger companies, in the

absence of NIST’s materials properties database, would likely have responded to the protocol by

hiring additional research scientists and engineers to attempt to provide the materials

characterization and analysis needed by their alternative refrigerant research programs being

conducted in-house or through participation in research consortia. The smaller companies among

these five reported that they would have relied on others’ (in the industry) research, and in the

interim looked for alternative uses of the HCFCs they produced.20

 

19 More precisely, each respondent was asked the current value of a fully-burdened man-year ($1996 responses)

and the rate at which such expenses had increased over time. Given that annual growth rate, the person-year

cost estimate was deflated to arrive at nominal annual values.

20 Recall that HCFCs were not phased out; additional controls were placed upon these substances.
20

All of the manufacturers were aware of the research at NIST, and four of the five

manufacturers purchased NIST’s REFPROP when it was first available in 1990 (the fifth

respondent thought that his company first purchased REFPROP in 1992). All used the most

recent version of REFPROP for verifying properties of new compounds, either to be made by the

company for general sale or to be made by the company for a specific customer. Interestingly,

every respondent noted that REFPROP was easy to use and that minimal learning costs (“pull

costs”) were associated with incorporating the software into production.

Regarding the calculation of new benefits from NIST’s research program, each of the five

firms responded in terms of the additional man-years of research effort – absent the NISTconducted research program – that would have been needed since the Montreal Protocol to

achieve the same level of technical knowledge on alternative refrigerants that they have now.

Each respondent was asked the current value of a fully-burdened man-year of research effort and

this was then imputed to the annual estimates of additional research needs, by company. To these

annual totals, by company, the respondents’ estimates of the value of additional equipment were

added (additional equipment needs were generally minimal compared to additional research

personnel needs). The annual benefits to this group of five manufacturers are shown in Table 7.

It is notable that each company’s estimated annual benefits began as early as 1989, shortly after

the Montreal Protocol went into effect.21

Table 7: Net Economic Benefits to Refrigerant Manufacturers

Year

Net Benefits

($000s)

1989 $2,090.2

1990 1,125.1

1991 1,107.4

1992 536.6

1993 552.4

1994 569.1

1995 586.3

1996 603.9

Source: Industry survey

 

21 Some companies reported in the interviews that benefits could have begun in 1988, but given that they were

not sure of this, the more conservative date of 1989 was used in the analyses that follow.
21

The quantitative estimates in Table 7 are viewed as net economic benefits associated with

NIST’s alternative refrigerant program in the sense that manufacturers of refrigerants would have

expended these additional resources to reach their current level of technical expertise in the

absence of NIST’s research programs.

4.1.2 Users of Alternative Refrigerants

The six users of refrigerants produced a variety of heating, cooling, and other refrigerant

equipment. As a group, they, like the manufacturers, anticipated the Montreal Protocol, and like

the manufacturers they did conduct investigations (which they call “component development” or

“advanced development” rather than “research and development”) into equipment efficiencies and

alternative lubricants needed in anticipation of new refrigerants. Accordingly, it was not

unexpected to find that these companies were less familiar with NIST’s underlying research

program into alternative refrigerants than the refrigerant manufacturers.

However, each company was familiar with NIST’s REFPROP. REFPROP is important to

refrigerant users because it assists them in verifying the properties of alternative refrigerants,

especially new ones. As one respondent noted, were REFPROP not available:

We would have been at the mercy of the [refrigerant]

manufacturers to meet deadlines...this would mean that to

deliver equipment that met Montreal Protocol specifications we

would have been less reliable.

While these refrigerant users were less complimentary about the ease of use of REFPROP

than the manufacturers, they were of the opinion that it did add value to their ongoing operations.

Noteworthy are their comments that REFPROP is “very cumbersome to use” or “not that userfriendly.”

The refrigerant users were asked a more constrained version of the counterfactual

question, “In the absence of NIST...” Specifically, each interviewee was asked the additional

man-years of effort that would have been needed, absent NIST’s REFPROP, for them to achieve

the same level of product reliability as they currently have. Five of the six companies were

comfortable answering this question; the sixth company was not comfortable offering even a

ranged response, although this company did report that it did receive positive benefits.22 The

 

22 For estimation purposes, we imputed the median dollar response from the other companies.
22

additional man-years of effort reported by the interviewees were generally described in terms of

additional quality control engineers. As above, each man-year was valued in terms of the

company’s cost of a fully-burdened man-year and when appropriate, additional equipment costs

were also added to the net benefits estimated in Table 8.

Table 8: Net Economic Benefits to Refrigerant Users

Year

Net Benefits

($000s)

1988 n/a

1989 n/a

1990 $2,342.523

1991 550.6

1992 534.8

1993 519.2

1994 503.9

1995 489.2

1996 475.0

Source: Industry survey

 

23 This estimate included a sizable one-time additional equipment cost by one user.
23

5. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

5.1 NIST ANNUAL EXPENDITURES

Table 9 summarizes all expenditures associated with research conducted at NIST that are

relevant to this study. The research funded directly by NIST is reported in the second column of

the table, and the relevant other agency research expenditures are reported in the third column of

the table. The total in column four is compared to estimated industry benefits in the economic

analysis section of the report.

Table 9: Expenditures Associated with Alternative Refrigerants Research

Conducted at NIST ($000s)

Year

NIST-Financed

Research

Expenditures24

Other AgencyFinanced Research

Expenditures25

Total

1987 $68 $0 $68

1988 75 0 75

1989 250 95 345

1990 225 265 490

1991 175 280 455

1992 275 555 830

1993 275 685 960

1994 375 770 1,145

1995 475 900 1,375

1996 475 400 875

Total 2,668 3,950 6,618

5.2 ANALYSIS OF COST AND BENEFIT DATA

Table 10 shows total expenditures for research conducted at NIST on alternative

refrigerants and on REFPROP-related information, by year, along with industry reported benefits.

 

24 1987 and 1988 NIST expenditures were estimated by NIST personnel.

25 Other agency costs include research conducted at NIST for government and private agencies that is directly

relevant to NIST’s research agenda in support of industry needs. These agencies included the Department of

Energy, the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency,

the Electric Power Research Institute, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning

Engineers, E.I. Dupont de Nemours, Inc., and ICI Americas.
24

Expenditure data are derived from Table 9 and the benefit data are obtained by combining Table 7

and Table 8.

Table 10: Net Industry Benefits from NIST-Conducted Research ($000s)

Year

Total Expenditures

on Research

Conducted at NIST26

Total Benefits

Reported by Industry

Net Industry

Benefits

1987 $68.0 $0.0 ($68.0)

1988 75.0 0.0 (75.0)

1989 345.0 2,090.2 1,745.2

1990 490.0 3,467.6 2,977.6

1991 455.0 1,658.0 1,203.0

1992 830.0 1,071.4 241.4

1993 960.0 1,071.6 111.6

1994 n/a 1,073.0 1,073.0

1995 n/a 1,075.5 1,075.5

1996 n/a 1,078.9 1,078.9

It is important to note that no NIST-related expenditures are included in this summary

table for the years 1994, 1995, and 1996. These data were reported above in Table 9. They are

excluded from the economic rate of return calculations because the research that resulted from

these expenditures has not yet had time to be included in a version of REFPROP from which

industry would benefit. Version 4.0 of REFPROP was released in November 1993 and Version

5.0 was released only in February 1996.

It is quite common in analyses of economic benefits resulting from public sector research

to experience such lags in the conduct of research and the benefits that are received by industry.

Alternatively, expenditures for the years 1994, 1995, and 1996 could have been included in the

rate of return analyses, but then anticipated benefits to industry in the years 1997, 1998, 1999, and

likely 2000 would need to have been included. We rejected this forecasting approach in favor of

what we believed to be a rate of return analysis that was based on more accurate data.

5.3 INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN

By definition, the internal rate of return is the value of the discount rate, i, that equates the

present value (PV) of a net benefit stream to zero:

 

26 Expenditure data for 1994, 1995, and 1996 are not applicable for the analyses in this section of the report.
25

PV = [(B0-C0)/(1+i)

0

] + ... + [(Bn-Cn)/(1+i)n] = 0

where (Bn-Cn) represents net benefits and n represents the number of time periods.

Based on the net benefit data in Table 10, the calculated value of i for which PV=0 is 4.33

(rounded), implying an internal rate of return to NIST conducted research in alternative

refrigerants of 433 percent.

It should be noted that when PV=0, B/C=1. PV can be rewritten as:

PV = [Σt=0 to n Bt/(1+r)

t

] - [Σt=0 to n Ct/(1+r)t]

where r is the theoretical discount rate used to reference future benefits and costs to present

value. When PV=0, it follows that:

Σt=0 to n Bt/(1+r)t = Σt=0 to n Ct/(1+r)t

or that the present value of benefits equals the present value of costs, or B/C=1.

If the value of r used is the opportunity cost of funds invested by NIST and other

agencies, the PV, as defined above, reflects what finance text books refer to as “net present value”

and thus reflects the so-called profits of the investment. The internal rate of return estimate of

433 percent means that 4.33 is the value of the discount rate that equates the present value of

benefits to the present value of costs. Thus, if the opportunity cost of funds r is less than 4.33, the

internal rate of return, then the present value is positive and the project is a profitable one.

Economists and policy makers generally use internal rate of return measures for on-going or

completed public-sector research projects to estimate what is referred to as the social rate of

return. As such, one can infer from the 433 percent value calculated from the data in Table 10

that if 433 percent is above NIST’s hurdle rate or generally accepted expected rate of return then

NIST’s services are, from a social perspective, worthwhile.27

5.4 IMPLIED RATE OF RETURN

It is not uncommon to interpret an internal rate of return measure as an annual yield

similar to that earned on, say, a bank deposit. Such a direct comparison is, however, incorrect.

 

27 In the analyses that follow, we approximate NIST’s hurdle rate as the opportunity cost of obtaining public

funds, namely the long-term nominal rate of interest.
26

The return earned on a bank deposit is a compounded rate of return. One invests, say $100, and

then earns interest on that $100 each year plus interest on the interest. That is not the case in an

R&D project, in general, or in the case of NIST’s investments in alternative refrigerants research,

in particular.

Under an alternative set of assumptions, one can calculate an implied rate of return from

the data in Table 11, but this rate of return is not the same as the internal rate of return and should

not be interpreted as a social rate of return.

If all costs in Table 10 are referenced to 1987 using a discount rate equal to the sum of the

Office of Management and Budget’s recommended real rate of 7 percent plus the actual rate of

inflation that occurred in each previous year as measured by the GDP Price Index (chain-type

weights), then the present value of NIST resource investments in alternative refrigerants is $2.6

million (rounded).28 If all benefits in Table 10 are referenced forward to 1996 using the same

rates, the current value of all measured industrial economic benefits is $14.2 million (rounded).

The implied annual compounded rate of return that corresponds to an initial investment of

$2.6 million in 1987 growing to $14.2 million by the end of the 1996 can be calculated. Such a

compounded rate of return, x, equals 20.7 percent based upon the following relationship:

$2.6 (1+x)

9

=$14.2

5.5 BENEFIT-TO-COST RATIO

The calculation of a benefit-to-cost ratio (B/C) for alternative refrigerant research is based

upon the following formula:

B/C = [Σt=0 to n Bt/(1+r)

t

] / [Σt=0 to n Ct/(1+r)t]

As the formula shows, all costs and all benefits are discounted to the base period, which is

1987. Using a nominal discount rate equal to 7 percent plus the prevailing rate of inflation, the

 

28 See Office of Management and Budget, “Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and

Establishments, Circular No. A-94,” Washington, DC, October 29, 1992.
27

present value of benefits is $10.1 million (rounded) compared to the previously calculated present

value of costs of $2.6 million. Thus, the calculated benefit-to-cost ratio is 3.9-to-1.29

 

29 In general, we expect research with a high social rate of return to be associated with a high benefit-to-cost

ratio. In this case, due to the way in which the two metrics are calculated, the benefit and cost data yield a

very large net benefits estimate in the first two years that net benefits are positive. Hence, these values need to

be heavily discounted to yield a present value of net benefits equal to zero (per the IRR formula). This net

benefit profile does not, however, affect the calculation of a benefit-to-cost ratio.
28

6. CONCLUSIONS

The preceding analysis indicates that significant economic benefits have resulted from

NIST’s alternative refrigerants research. This research has resulted in a social rate of return (SRR)

of 433 percent, an implied rate of return of approximately 21 percent, and a benefit-to-cost ratio

(B/C) of almost 4-to-1. An SRR of 433 percent represents a relatively high economic impact as

compared with other similarly evaluated NIST projects.30

These economic impact calculations represent a conservative estimate of the total

economic impact of NIST’s alternative refrigerants research because they represent only firstorder economic benefits. Specifically, we construed the benefits from NIST’s alternative

refrigerants research as being the difference between actual NIST research costs and the costs that

would have been incurred by industry in the absence of NIST efforts. While the social rate of

return to NIST’s alternative refrigerants program is substantial, it is interpreted as a lower bound

estimate of all the benefits that have accrued from NIST’s investments.

Our research and interviews suggest that there are undoubtedly other substantial benefits.

First, transaction cost savings could be substantial. That is, in the absence of reliable data

concerning the properties of alternative refrigerant compounds, firms designing refrigeration

equipment would be forced to rely on less comprehensive, less accurate, and more heterogeneous

properties data furnished by individual chemical producers. The costs of evaluating that data

could be significant, especially for new refrigerants, and would conceivably be incurred repeatedly

by numerous equipment designers, who doubted the performance claims of suppliers. The

estimation of these costs could add substantially to the benefit stream emanating from NIST’s

investments while affecting NIST’s costs only modestly, if at all.

A second source of additional economic benefits from NIST’s alternative refrigerants

research could be ascertained from estimates of energy cost efficiencies that would not have

occurred absent NIST’s efforts. That is, given the deadlines for CFC replacements imposed by

international agreements, in the absence of NIST’s efforts it is certainly possible that more poorly

researched, less optimal refrigerants would have been adopted and energy efficiency of equipment

utilizing these inferior chemicals would have been degraded.

 

30 See Gregory Tassey, Rates of Return from Investments in Technology Infrastructure, NIST Planning Report

96-3, June 1996.
29

A third benefit resulting from NIST’s involvement in this research was addressed earlier in

this report: NIST provided a degree of standardization of results that might possibly not have

existed had alternative refrigerant development been left to industry alone. This standardization

served to reduce uncertainty about refrigerant properties, and allowed refrigerant manufacturers

and users to develop new products with the knowledge that the underlying data upon which they

were basing their product designs was solid.

A final, important benefit of NIST’s research program is the avoidance of burdensome

regulations and taxes that could have been imposed upon the refrigerant producing industry had

NIST’s research been performed for and funded by the industry itself. Congressional testimony

from the late 1980s indicates quite clearly that many interest groups viewed the refrigerant

manufacturers as the root cause of the ozone depletion problem and thus did not embrace the

prospect of these same manufacturers profiting from the government-mandated increase in

demand for alternative refrigerants. NIST’s involvement as a neutral third-party served to defuse

this politically charged issue by removing from consideration the perceived exploitation of the

market response to the Montreal Protocol by these manufacturers.

While methodological difficulties and resource constraints have prevented the estimation

of the overall social benefits from NIST’s alternative refrigerants research, we have every reason

to believe additional net benefits could be estimated and that the return to NIST investments

would thereby surpass the estimates calculated above.
30

APPENDIX A

TECHNICAL OVERVIEW OF

ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS
31

The alternative refrigerants research that has been performed at NIST over the past

decade is concerned with determining the physical properties of refrigerants. This appendix gives

a brief overview of the technological issues that bear upon this research.

A.1 REFRIGERATION

Refrigeration is a process by which a substance is cooled below the temperature of its

surroundings. Objects can be cooled as well as areas and spaces. The type of refrigeration

related to the work at hand is referred to as mechanical (as opposed to natural) refrigeration, and

it came into use during the twentieth century.31

For mechanical refrigeration to work, a number of components are required. The vaporcompression cycle of refrigeration requires the use of a compressor, a condenser, a storage tank, a

throttling valve, and an evaporator as shown in the cycle begins with the liquid refrigerant boiling

at a low temperature in the evaporator. This produces the desired cooling effect. The refrigerant

is then sent through the compressor, which raises its pressure and temperature. It then moves to

the condenser, where its heat is released to the environment, and then through the throttling valve

to the evaporator where its pressure and temperature drop. At this point the cycle begins again.

In Figure A-1, Q represents the flow of heat through the system. The conduit for the heat

exchange is the refrigerant itself. Heat energy from the substance or area that is to be cooled is

transferred to the refrigerant, which then transfers the heat to the outside environment. Energy is

moved from one place to another. 32

In order for a refrigerant to be effective, it must satisfy certain criteria, outlined in Table

A-1.33 Not every refrigerant will satisfy every criterion. In deciding upon a particular refrigerant

to use, the range of criteria must be taken into account. For instance, a refrigerant that has

acceptable thermodynamic properties might be extremely toxic to humans, while one that is

satisfactory from a thermodynamic standpoint and which is non-toxic might be unstable and break

down inside the refrigeration machinery.

 

31 McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, 7th Edition, vol. 15, pp. 256-263, McGraw-Hill, Inc.,

New York, 1992.

32 Considine, Douglas M., ed., Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia, 8th Edition, pp. 2663-2666, Van

Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1995.

33 Didion, David A., and McLinden, Mark O., “Quest for Alternatives,” ASHRAE Journal, p. 35, December

1987.
32

Figure A-1: The Vapor-Compression Refrigeration System

Table A-1: Refrigerant Criteria

Chemical

• Stable and inert

Health, Safety & Environmental

• Non-toxic

• Nonflammable

• Does not degrade the atmosphere

Thermal (Thermodynamic & Transport)

• Critical point and boiling point

temperatures appropriate for the 

application

• Low vapor heat capacity

• Low viscosity

• High thermal conductivity

Miscellaneous

• Satisfactory oil solubility

• High dielectric strength of vapor

• Low freezing point

• Reasonable containment materials

• Easy leak detection

• Low cost

Source: “Quest for Alternatives,” ASHRAE Journal, Dec. 1987
33

A.2 CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS (CFCS)

During most of the history of mechanical refrigeration, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have

been the most widely used refrigerants. The term chlorofluorocarbons refers to a family of

chemicals whose molecular structures are composed of chlorine (Cl), fluorine (F), and carbon (C)

atoms. Their popularity has been due in no small part to their desirable thermal properties as well

as their molecular stability, among other things.

Chlorofluorocarbons have a nomenclature that describes the molecular structure of the

CFC. In order to determine the structure of CFC-11, for instance, one takes the number (11) and

adds 90 to it. The result is 101. The first digit of the sum indicates the number of carbon atoms

in the molecule, the second the number of hydrogen atoms, and the third the number of fluorine

atoms. Any further spaces left in the molecule are filled with chlorine atoms. According to this

convention, CFC-11 contains 1 carbon atom, 0 hydrogen atoms, and 1 fluorine atom. Since the

carbon atom requires 4 bonds to form a molecule and only one other atom is called for directly by

the nomenclature, the remaining three atoms must be filled by chlorine. Hence the molecular

formula of CFC-11 is CCl3F. In this fashion it can be seen that the molecular formula for CFC-12

(12+90=102) is CCl2F2, and that for CFC-113 (113+90=203) is C2Cl3F3. In some cases, a letter

(“a,” for example) is appended to the end of the refrigerant code. This represents a separate

isomer of the refrigerant, that is, a form of the molecule with the same proportions of atoms in the

molecule, but with a different arrangement of those atoms The letter “R” can be used

interchangeably with “CFC” in the nomenclature (“R” stands for “refrigerant”).

Of the various chlorofluorocarbons available, the three listed above (CFC-11, CFC-12,

and CFC-113) have been the ones used most extensively, due to their desirable physical

properties. CFC-11 and CFC-12 are used in refrigeration and foam insulation (CFC-12 is used by

virtually all household and mobile air-conditioning systems). CFC-113 is a solvent, used as a

cleaning agent for electronics and a degreaser for metals. Table A-2 lists the various uses of

CFCs; note that refrigerants account for only a quarter of all CFC applications.
34

Table A-2: CFC Applications

Use %

Solvents 26.0

Refrigeration, air conditioning 25.0

Rigid foams 19.0

Fire extinguishing 12.0

Flexible foams 5.0

Other 13.0

Source: Power, March 1990, p.28.

A.3 OZONE

The link between chlorofluorocarbons and ozone depletion has been debated over the past

twenty years. Much of the impetus for international environmental treaties, such as the Montreal

Protocol and legislation such as the Clean Air Act, has come from studies that assert that CFCs,

when released into the atmosphere, react with the Earth’s ozone layer and eventually destroy it.

The chemistry advanced by these studies suggests that once a CFC molecule drifts high

enough into the upper atmosphere, it is broken apart by ultraviolet light. This releases a chlorine

atom (Cl), which reacts with an ozone molecule (O3). The reaction produces a chlorine monoxide

(ClO) molecule and an ordinary (O2) molecule, neither of which absorb ultraviolet radiation. The

chlorine monoxide molecule is then broken up by a free oxygen atom, and the original chlorine

atom becomes available to react with more ozone.34

A.4 CFC REPLACEMENTS

Research on finding alternatives to CFCs has focused on trying to find refrigerants that

will not affect the ozone layer directly (i.e., those that do not contain chlorine), or refrigerants

that, when released into the atmosphere, will break down before reaching the ozone layer, or

both.

Three types of CFC replacements being used now and being looked at for future use are

hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and their mixtures. HCFCs are

similar to CFCs, except that they contain one or more hydrogen atoms, which are not present in

CFC molecules. This addition of hydrogen makes these refrigerants more reactive in the

 

34 Cogan, Douglas G., Stones in a Glass House: CFCs and Ozone Depletion, p. 29, Investor Responsibility

Research Center Inc., Washington, D.C., 1988.
35

atmosphere, and so less likely to survive intact to higher altitudes. HFCs are similar to HCFCs,

except that HFCs do not contain chlorine atoms at all; they are more likely to break up in the

lower atmosphere than CFCs, and if they or their degradation products do survive to rise up to

the higher atmosphere, they contain no chlorine atoms that can be broken off to react with ozone.

Existing phase-out schedules mandate replacing CFCs in the short term, and HCFCs in the longer

term. Even though HCFCs are being used as substitutes for CFCs in some cases, this is not a

long-term solution. Therefore, there is an eye towards moving directly to HFCs or other longterm solutions as quickly as possible.

The proposed phase-out schedules deal with production, not use. With recycling, a

compound may remain in use long after it is no longer made. However, if it is no longer made,

there is a strong incentive to replace it.

The key for those concerned with the environmental effects of refrigerants is a ratio

referred to as Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). A substance’s ODP can be found by dividing

the amount of ozone depletion brought about by 1 kg of the substance by the amount of ozone

depletion brought about by 1 kg of CFC-11. In this fashion, CFC-11 has an ODP of 1.0, and

other substances are rated accordingly. ODP levels for various refrigerants are shown in puts the

various CFC phase-out strategies into context: moving from high-ODP refrigerants to low-ODP

refrigerants in the near term, with the final goal being a move to zero-ODP refrigerants.

Note that HFCs (such as R-134a) have zero ozone depletion potential since they contain

no chlorine atoms.
36

Figure A-2: Ozone Depletion Potentials

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2

152a

143a

134a

125

32

225cb

225ca

142b

141b

124

123

22

115

114

113

12

11

Refrigerant

ODP

CFCs HCFCs HFCs

Source: Montreal Protocol