Assessing the environmental performance of optimized commercial refrigerators with alternative refrigerants and remote monitoring system: A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment

Abstract

Refrigerators, as other cooling systems, are responsible for a significant parcel of anthropogenic emissions since they are essential and heavy appliances that use energy during its lifespan and are loaded with refrigerant gases. Three types of commercial refrigerators and their new versions, with incorporated CO2 as refrigerant gas and an wireless system for maintenance monitoring (WSMM) were investigated to evaluate how optimization could impact on the environmental performance during their entire life cycle. This study conducted a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the refrigerators, from the production to their end-of-life. The findings revealed that the use phase and the raw materials were responsible for most of the environmental impact throughout the refrigerators' life cycle. Key impact categories such as Fossil Resource Scarcity, Freshwater Eutrophication, and Global Warming were particularly affected, largely due to the electricity mix in the use phase. Additionally, the extraction and production of raw materials, specifically steel and copper, made significant contributions to Terrestrial Ecotoxicity and Human Carcinogenic Toxicity categories. The optimization measures impacted mainly in the energy consumption during the use phase, resulting in a notable reduction of approximately 57 % for models that underwent refrigerant change and 60 % for the model that underwent both refrigerant change and electronic system installation. As a result of decreased energy consumption, there was a significant decrease of 13 %–16 % across all impact categories, underscoring the positive environmental implications of these optimization strategies.