At the end of 2020, the U.S. federal government enacted and signed into law the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act which was the next domino to fall in refrigeration regulations.

The AIM Act looked to align with the Montreal Protocol (specifically the Kigali Agreement), which is a global agreement to address the depletion of the ozone layer and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. This set a schedule of the phase down of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants in the U.S. market while also empowering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop regulations to meet this schedule.

HFC refrigerants were specifically targeted due to their high global warming potential (GWP), which is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide as defined by the U.S. EPA. At the time of this writing, the EPA has begun managing HFC restrictions by mandating supply restrictions, establishing sector-based GWP limits, and creating/enforcing standards for servicing and repair of systems.

So, what does this legislation mean to end-users today? Well, it certainly poses a huge hurdle in the U.S. market as common refrigerants that are found in grocery stores have a GWP that exceeds 1,000. Do end-users have to have all existing systems replaced by these sector-based GWP limit dates? The short answer is no since these GWP limits only apply to new systems. However, the time to start planning a path forward is now as HFC supply restrictions and service/repair standards are also included in the latest rounds of regulations so the cost of maintaining these existing systems is likely to increase as time goes on.

Additionally, the days of retrofitting existing systems by dropping in a new refrigerant and oil are approaching the end as there is no current refrigerant retrofit solution that will not require replacing major components such as compressors, condensers, or cases/coils. So, what options do end-users have? Many end-users today are beginning to pivot to future-proof solutions on both remodels and new stores to meet regulatory requirements. Cuhaci Peterson has highlighted a few leading solutions that are likely to be cornerstones of commercial refrigeration systems.