It has been a while since we have mentioned/discussed the refrigerant HFO-1234yf – which has taken the car manufacturer’s on a ride down the PSM lane of H_LL! I have had several discussions with these businesses and for the life of me, I am puzzled as to where this idea that NFPA 55: Compressed Gases and Cryogenic Fluids Code is the most fitting RAGAGEP to uses as the baseline RAGAGEP in the design and construction of the process. I have argued for several years now that NFPA 58: Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code is a much better code/standard to use. I get a lot of push back on this suggestion and I am always puzzled at the rationale the end-user puts forth as to why they wish/want to use NFPA 55 instead. But I always ask them this simple question:
Where in your process is HFO-1234yf ever in the state of a “compressed gas”?
The discussion pauses for a couple of minutes and the response is usually… “well your splitting hairs with that”. Really? Those “hairs” MUST be split as it matters IMMENSELY and here is why!
Gases are stored/processed in four (4) states: