Dear Valued Customer,
The International Institute of All-Natural Refrigeration (IIAR) has a suite of standards that help establish both code for central ammonia refrigeration systems, but also generally accepted industry practices. Up until recently, this suite of standards largely focused on new systems or modifications to systems as well as maintenance and operations of all systems. In 2021, IIAR published “ANSI/IIAR 9-2020 – Standard for Minimum System Safety Requirements for Existing Closed-Circuit Ammonia Refrigeration Systems”. This standard was intended to bridge the gap of legacy systems that were designed and installed to past requirements, but where the owner of the system couldn’t necessarily identify what particular standard or code the system was designed and installed to. Because of this gap of knowledge, IIAR was compelled to developed this standard.
Regardless of the size of your ammonia refrigeration system (you could be at 5 lbs or 500,000 lbs) each facility needs to review the IIAR-9 standard and ensure that they meet or exceed all requirements laid out within the standard. These IIAR-9 reviews need to occur every 5-years to ensure even legacy systems can meet baseline safety standards that industry is considering to be the minimum. Further, IIAR has suggested that starting January 1st, 2026, the EPA and OSHA could require and possibly even levy citations on owners of central ammonia refrigeration systems who have not performed a documented IIAR-9 review.
IIAR, in late September 2024, released a checklist that could be considered this IIAR-9 Gap Analysis that these agencies could be looking for. In an ideal situation, an end-user will have an IIAR-9 Gap Analysis completed and documented, and any deficiencies found during the Gap Analysis are addressed.
As a partner of yours in the ammonia refrigeration industry, the goal of this notice is to simply inform you of this standard and possible enforcement in the future. If you would like to discuss this further or are needing assistance in performing this IIAR-9 Gap Analysis, please reach out to us.
Respectfully,
Erik Hansen
VP of Engineering
Carlson & Stewart Refrigeration, Inc.