Time to replace those old car aircon units

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is set to reject the registration of all vehicles, covering 1999 models and older, which do not use non-chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) agents in their car’s air-conditioning unit starting Jan. 1, 2006, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) announced yesterday.

Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Assistant Director Fernandino Concepcion said that the move is part of the government’s scheme to phase out the use of ozone depleting substances (ODS) in the country in fulfillment with the 1988 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

"Vehicles with air-conditioning must shift to the use of the ultimate alternative for CFC, such as HFC (hydroflourocarbon) before that time. Otherwise, they will not be allowed to ply our roads by the LTO," Concepcion said. "The continuous use of CFCs in air conditioning systems of vehicles is akin with violations to the provisions of the Clean Air Act."

When the Philippines became a signatory to the Montreal Protocol, the country committed itself to phase out the importation and consumption of CFCs in all sectors — manufacturing and servicing. 

The Protocol was concurred by the Philippine Senate on March 21, 1991.

The Philippines is considered an "Article 5" country under the Montreal Protocol, thus, it was given a grace period of 10 years to phase out ODS consumption.

The Philippines is expected to have complete phase out of the importation and use of CFC, or freon, in the service and manufacturing sectors by 2010.

As this developed, Elvira Pausing, project manager of the National CFC Phase-Out Plan (NCPP), said that the country is ahead of schedule in the agreed timetable for phasing out ODS in developing countries.

She said that a 50 percent phase out of CFC consumption scheduled for 2005 had been met last year. By 2007, the Philippines must have phased out CFC consumption by 85 percent.

CFC-12, or freon, is best known as a chemical substance that cools refrigerators and car air-conditioners. It is also used as blowing agents for foams, propellant for aerosol and metered-dose inhalers as well as cleaning agents for computer circuits.

The service sector accounts for some 75 percent of CFC consumption in the country.

Half of the 75 percent is used to service car air-conditioners while the remaining 26 percent service household appliances like refrigerators and air-conditioners.

The manufacturing sector accounts for 25 percent of CFC consumption.

"We will be able to phase out the use of CFC in the manufacturing sector this year while our target for the phaseout in the use of CFC in the service sector will be for the next five years," Pausing told reporters.

The NCPP is the fourth and biggest project under the DENR-EMB’s Philippine Ozone Desk.  It has a budget of $10.58 million with the assistance of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol through the World Bank.

Part of the NCPP project is the Voucher System, a financial grant assistance to properly equip service establishments to recover and recycle CFCs.

Under the program, the DENR-EMB will distribute P75,000 worth of tools and equipment to service enterprises. 

Tools and equipment include portable leak detectors, recovery and recycling machines, vacuum pumps and meters, electronic weighing scales, nitrogen regulators with gauges and electronic thermometers.

The tools and equipment can be purchased at any EMB-qualified supplier.

Eligible applicants for the grant include CFC service shops and providers that are registered with any appropriate government agency like the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and with TESDA-certified technicians.

Pausing said the Voucher System has a budget of $1 million and will be implemented by the DENR-EMB in cooperation with the Land Bank of the Philippines, DTI and TESDA.

Also, orientation seminars geared at increasing understanding of refrigeration and air-conditioning as well as mobile air-conditioning service shop owners and technicians on the NCPP are now underway.

"We are giving the service shops the grant for the tools and equipment to help them correct their old ways and adopt proper repair and maintenance, servicing, and installation systems," Pausing said.

Prior the NCPP, the DENR-EMB embarked on the phaseout of another ODS — methyl bromide which is used in fumigation.

Dubbed as the National Methyl Bromide Phase-out Strategy, the project aims to gradually reduce and eliminate a total of 9.03 tons of methyl bromide and ensure that there are eventually viable and permanent alternatives and alternative approaches to maintain the phaseout. 

Based on the agreed timetable for phasing out ODS, the Philippines must totally phase out the consumption of methyl bromide by 2015.

Other ODS which the Philippines must totally phase out by 2010 are carbon tertrachloride (CTC), and halons; by 2015, methyl chloroform; and by 2040, hydrofluorocarbon (HCFC).