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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 55 / Wednesday, March 24, 2021 / Rules and Regulations standards incorporated by reference at 40 CFR 82.36a810 and to submit a summary of the conforming changes to the Administrator as part of the summary required by 40 CFR 40.82c.
Current regulations at 40 CFR 82.36
contain the requirements for approved refrigerant handling equipment, including the requirement for certification of such equipment by the EPA or an independent, standards testing organization approved by the EPA. The Agency maintains a list of approved equipment by manufacturer and model at: https www.epa.gov/
mvac/section-609-certified-equipment.
Lastly, the EPA is amending appendix F to subpart B of part 82. This appendix contains specifications for recovery equipment that extracts a single, specific refrigerant other than those named in the other appendices to subpart B. Since the EPA is adding standards for recovery equipment for MVACs containing R1234yf, the EPA is noting that as appropriate, in this appendix.
Existing EPA regulations that are not modified by this action require stakeholders who chose to service or repair vehicles that use R1234yf to use certified equipment. Equipment certified to meet SAE J2843, J2851, and J3030 will provide additional flexibility for industry stakeholders and protect human health and the environment. Use of equipment that meets the three standards also supports compliance with the prohibition in section 608c of the CAA on knowingly venting or otherwise knowingly releasing or disposing of refrigerant in a manner that allows the refrigerant to enter the environment in the course of servicing, maintaining, repairing, or disposing of an appliance. In addition, proper handling of R1234yf is important given it is listed by ASHRAE as an A2L
refrigerant meaning it is mildly flammable.7

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IV. Incorporation by Reference The EPA is adopting the following three standards by incorporating them by referenceSAE J2843 revised July 2019, R1234yf HFO1234yf Recovery/Recycling/Recharging Equipment for Flammable Refrigerants 7 American National Standards Institute ANSI/
ASHRAE Standard 342016 assigns a safety group classification for each refrigerant which consists of two alphanumeric characters e.g., A2 or B1. The capital letter indicates the toxicity i.e., A = no evidence of toxicity, B = signifies toxicity and the numeral denotes the flammability. Refrigerants with flammability classification 3 are highly flammable while those with flammability classification 2 are less flammable and those with flammability classification 2L are mildly flammable.

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for Mobile Air-Conditioning Systems;
SAE J2851 revised February 2015
Recovery Equipment for Contaminated R134a or R1234yf Refrigerant from Mobile Automotive Air-Conditioning Systems; and SAE J3030 revised July 2015 Automotive Refrigerant Recovery/Recycling/Recharging Equipment Intended for use with Both R1234yf and R134a. Section III.A. of this preamble discusses these standards in greater detail. This action approves and provides technical specifications for MVAC recovery/recycling/recharging equipment so that it may be used for R
1234yf under CAA section 609 and 40
CFR part 82, subpart B.
Incorporation by reference allows Federal agencies to comply with the requirement to publish rules in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations by referring to material already published elsewhere.
The legal effect of incorporation by reference is that the material is treated as if it were published in the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations.
SAE J2843, J2851, and J3030 are available for purchase by mail at: SAE
Customer Service, 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 150960001;
Telephone: 18776067323 in the U.S.
or Canada other countries dial 1724
7764970; internet address for SAE
J2843: https www.sae.org/standards/
content/j2843_201907; internet address for SAE J2851: https www.sae.org/
standards/content/j2851_201502;
internet address for SAE J3030: https
www.sae.org/standards/content/j3030_
201507. The cost of SAE J2843, SAE
J2851, and SAE J3030 is $83 each for an electronic or hard copy. The cost of obtaining these standards is not a significant financial burden for manufacturers of MVACs or recovery equipment manufacturers and purchase is not required for those selling, installing, or using the refrigerant handling equipment covered by these standards. Therefore, the EPA concludes that SAE J2843, SAE J2851, and SAE
J3030 are reasonably available.
V. Response to Comments The EPA received eight comments on the proposed rule from individuals and organizations with various interests in the MVAC industry. Most commenters supported the proposal to adopt SAE
J2843, J2851, and J3030 by incorporating them by reference into the regulations implementing CAA section 609. A few commenters also suggested changes the EPA should consider incorporating into the CAA section 609 regulations or requested additional information concerning the three standards. Some of
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the commenters raised issues that are outside the scope of this rulemaking and the EPA is not providing a specific response to those comments. We have grouped comments together and responded to the issues raised by the commenters in the sections that follow.
A. Support for Adoption of the Standards Comment: Seven commenters supported the proposal to adopt the three SAE standards. One commenter stated that adopting the standards would reduce the amount of refrigerant currently being used and needed to meet future demand. One commenter stated that adopting the standards would establish clear guidance for the automotive repair sector to ensure the equipment and procedures being used effectively support the overall goal of reducing the global warming impact of air conditioning. Another commenter stated that having proper equipment, usage/handling of the materials/vapors, and being certified to use the equipment is paramount to environmental protection.
Response: EPA acknowledges the comments and is adopting the three standards as proposed.
B. Concerns Regarding SAE J3030
Comment: One commenter expressed support for the adoption of SAE J2843
and J2851, but objected to the adoption of SAE J3030, which covers R134a and R1234yf dual refrigerant equipment.
The commenter stated that by allowing machines to service both R134a and R
1234yf MVACs there is potential for misuse and refrigerant crosscontamination, which would be problematic for service providers, consumers, original equipment manufacturers OEMs, and reclaimers due to flammability concerns. The commenter also stated that any environmental benefit from the use of a lower global warming potential GWP
refrigerant and carbon dioxide CO2equivalent credits 8 generated by OEMs for mileage allowance from the transition to R1234yf will be lost if R
134a is used to service R1234yf MVACs. Additionally, the commenter also stated that the value of the refrigerant for recovery, recycling, and recharging would be lost as it would be impossible to separate the refrigerants from one another.
8 CO equivalence CO e expresses the global 2
2 warming potential of a greenhouse gas for A/C, hydrofluorocarbons by normalizing that potency to CO2s. Thus, the maximum A/C credit for direct emissions is the equivalent of 18.8 grams/mile of CO2 for cars.

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