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EPA’s Vintaging Model of ODS Substitutes

EPA’s Vintaging Model (VM) was developed in the 1990s as a tool for estimating the annual chemical emissions from industrial sectors that have used ODS in their products. The VM is a “bottom-up” model named for its method of tracking an inventory of the in-use stocks and emissions from annual “vintages” of new equipment containing ODS and ODS substitutes that enter into service. The VM estimates the emissions of various ODS substitutes reported in the U.S. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory and submitted annually to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) . The VM estimates emissions from six ODS substitute industrial sectors:

  • refrigeration and air conditioning (AC),
  • foam blowing agents,
  • fire suppression,
  • aerosols,
  • sterilants, and
  • cleaning solvents.

An independent peer review of EPA’s VM was conducted by a contractor in 2017 for six specific VM end-use groups: fire suppression, motor vehicle air conditioning (MVAC), unitary AC, refrigerated transport, large retail food, and construction foam. Several updates in the refrigeration and AC and fire suppression sectors in response to peer review comments were implemented into the VM in 2018.

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