• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.350-355
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• 2013

Little information is available for emission pathway even if HFC-134a that is known as one of the major greenhouse gases has been broadly used in Korea. This paper attempts to clarify the emission characteristics of HFC-134a used for refrigerant of cold drinking vending machines (CDVMs) at the use- and disposal-phase. We measured the residual amounts in the scrap CDVMs of 47 by applying commercial recover for refrigerant. The first-order kinetic model was introduced and the emission rate would be proportional to the remaining quantity of refrigerant. The emission factor at the use-phase was determined indirectly to be $6.9{\pm}0.7$ %/yr within a confidence interval of 95%, using information on residual amount and elapsed operation time at the disposal point. Correspondingly, the annual emission rate of HFC-134a per CDVM was determined to be 11.6 g. The average residual rate of HFC-134a in scrap CDVMs was assessed to be $62.5{\pm}2.2%$, leading to a potential emission amount of 144.8 g per scrap CDVM. The chemical compositions of refrigerants from scrap passenger vehicles are quite similar to those of new refrigerants, suggesting that the refrigerants from scrap passenger vehicles could be reused. During the recovering process of refrigerant, the recovered refrigerant was contaminated by compressor lubricant that accounted for about 30% in weight. It is necessary to separate the refrigerant from the recovered material contaminated by lubricant for recycling and reuse the refrigerant.