Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Determination 39 for the Significant New Alternatives Policy Program

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 82</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0118; FRL-12145-01-OAR]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2060-AG12</RIN> <SUBJECT>Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Determination 39 for the Significant New Alternatives Policy Program</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Determination of acceptability. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This determination of acceptability expands the list of acceptable substitutes pursuant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Significant New Alternatives Policy program. This action lists four substitutes as acceptable additional substitutes for use in the refrigeration and air conditioning and foam blowing sectors. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This determination is applicable on December 11, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> EPA established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0118 (continuation of Air Docket A-91-42). All electronic documents in the docket are listed in the index at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> confidential business information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> or in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), (Docket Nos. A-91-42 and EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0118), William J. Clinton West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Air and Radiation Docket is (202) 566-1742. The Docket Center's hours of operations are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday (except Federal Holidays). For further information on the EPA Docket Center services and the current status, please visit online at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Nathaniel Burola, Stratospheric Protection Division, Office of Atmospheric Protection (Mail Code 6205A), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 20460; telephone number: 202-564-2883; email address: <E T="03">Burola.Nathaniel@epa.gov.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Listing of New Acceptable Substitutes</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Refrigeration and Air Conditioning</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. R-471A</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. R-480A</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. R-513A</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Foam Blowing</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> 1. Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) Blowing Agent Blends of 0 to 90 Percent HFO-1336mzz(Z), 0 to 90 Percent HFO-1234ze(E), 0 to 75 Percent HFC-152a, and 0 to 90 Percent CO <E T="52">2</E> </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">Appendix A: Summary of Decisions for New Acceptable Substitutes</FP> </EXTRACT> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Listing of New Acceptable Substitutes</HD> This action is listing as acceptable additional substitutes for use in the refrigeration and air conditioning and foam blowing sectors. This action presents EPA's most recent decisions under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program to list as acceptable several substitutes in different end-uses. The new substitutes are: • R-471A in retail food refrigeration, industrial process refrigeration, and cold storage warehouses (retrofit equipment only); • R-480A in cold storage warehouses, commercial ice machines, positive displacement chillers, refrigerated transport, and water coolers (retrofit equipment only); • R-513A in residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pumps—self-contained units (new equipment only); • XPS foam blowing agent blends of 0 to 90 percent hydrofluoroolefin (HFO)-1336mzz(Z), 0 to 90 percent HFO-1234ze(E), 0 to 75 percent hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-152a, and 0 to 90 percent carbon dioxide (CO <E T="52">2</E> ) in polystyrene: extruded boardstock and billet. Listing decisions in the end-uses in this document do not prejudge EPA's listings of these substitutes for other end-uses. For additional information on SNAP, visit the SNAP website at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/snap.</E> The full lists of acceptable substitutes for ozone-depleting substances (ODS) in the industrial sectors covered by the SNAP program are available at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/snap/substitutes-sector.</E> For more information on the Agency's process for administering the SNAP program or criteria for evaluation of substitutes, refer to the initial SNAP rulemaking (59 FR 13044; March 18, 1994). The regulations are codified at 40 CFR part 82, subpart G. SNAP decisions and the appropriate <E T="04">Federal Register</E> citations are available at: <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/snap/snap-regulations.</E> Under the SNAP program, EPA may list a substitute as acceptable for specified end-uses where the Agency has reviewed the substitute and found no reason to restrict or prohibit its use. Substitutes listed as unacceptable; acceptable, subject to narrowed use limits; or acceptable, subject to use conditions are also listed in the appendices to 40 CFR part 82, subpart G. This document discusses each substitute listing in detail and summarizes the results of EPA's assessment of the human health and environmental risks posed by each substitute. EPA's evaluation applies the criteria in 40 CFR 82.180(a)(7), including atmospheric effects and related health and environmental effects, ecosystem risks, occupational risks, consumer risks, flammability, and cost and availability of the substitute. EPA evaluates these criteria in risk screens, or technical documents that evaluate risks to human health and the environment from substitutes in specific end-uses, including comparisons to other available substitutes and evaluations against relevant thresholds of risk starting with protective assumptions. The risk screens cited in this document include evaluation of atmospheric effects, toxicity data, exposure assessments, flammability, and other environmental impacts such as ecotoxicity and local air quality impacts. You can find more information on the criteria used in the evaluation of substitutes in the SNAP program at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/snap/snap-regulations.</E> In this document, EPA determined the global warming potential (GWP) for a chemical or blend using the 100-year GWP values from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4)  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> for substances or components of blends if included. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Note that Annex F to the <E T="03">Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer</E> lists GWPs for HFCs that are numerically equivalent to the AR4 values. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> These HFC 100-year GWP values are also numerically equivalent to the exchange values listed in the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (hereafter referred to as “the AIM Act”). If no GWP is provided in AR4 for a substance, the SNAP program is using the 100-year GWP listed in World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2022. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> To calculate the GWP of blends of chemicals, such as the listed refrigerant blends, this document weights the GWP of each component of the blend by its mass percentage. This method of calculating GWPs is consistent with the method used to calculate GWPs in the October 2023 Technology Transitions Rule as codified at 40 CFR 84.64. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  IPCC, 2007: <E T="03">Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</E> [Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor M., and Miller, H.L. (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Available at: <E T="03">https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/contents.html.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The IPCC, 2007 100-year GWP values are consistent with the exchange values for the regulated HFCs listed in subsection (c) of the AIM Act and with the GWPs in Annex F of the Montreal Protocol. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Annex F of the Montreal Protocol is available at: <E T="03">https://ozone.unep.org/treaties/montreal-protocol/articles/annex-f-controlled-substances.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  WMO, <E T="03">Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2022,</E> GAW Report No. 278, 509 pp.; WMO: Geneva, 2022. Available at: <E T="03">https://ozone.unep.org/system/files/documents/Scientific-Assessment-of-Ozone-Depletion-2022.pdf.</E> (WMO, 2022). </FTNT> Under section 612 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), the SNAP program reviews substitutes using a comparative risk framework in different industrial sectors. In making listing decisions, EPA considers overall risk to human health and the environment. As a general matter, the substitutes being added through this action to the acceptable lists have a similar or lower risk than other substitutes already listed as acceptable in those end-uses. However, certain substitutes may have a higher risk than certain other substitutes already listed as acceptable or acceptable subject to restrictions. In such cases, those already-listed alternatives have other factors that limit their use in some situations within a particular end-use. Appendix A contains tables summarizing each listing decision in this action. The statements in the “Further Information” column in the tables provide additional information, but these are not legally binding under section 612 of the CAA. Although users are ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 58k characters. 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