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August 2022

What happened to the IIAR Bulletins?

BY TONY LUNDELL, CIRO, PMP, IIAR SENIOR DIRECTOR OF STANDARDS AND SAFETY

What happened to the IIAR Bulletins? Short Answer: The IIAR Bulletins were all “Superseded!” Let’s discuss the history of the onset of IIAR Bulletins and how their material was eventually distributed and captured to become superseded.

First, let’s step back and discuss how IIAR Bulletins became numbered. Before IIAR Guidelines and IIAR Bulletins were developed, IIAR Poster Boards were developed and numbered as follows: These numbers were not included on the Poster Boards. A couple of Posters are shown as examples. The first IIAR Bulletin developed as a guideline was R1.

Figure 3:

Other information for Bulletin R1 was placed in IIAR Bulletin No. 109 and IIAR Bulletin No. 110. Information about the properties and uses of ammonia could be found in the Ammonia Natural Refrigerant of Choice (DVD).

The Ammonia Natural Refrigerant of Choice information was also an IIAR Green Paper. Before covering the development and numbering of the IIAR Bulletins and how they each were superseded by having their material embedded into the IIAR Suite of Standards normative and informative appendices, you need to know the following:

IIAR Bulletins were developed a long time ago. They were guidelines and not standards, and were not enforceable, unless adopted by an owner/employer under regulation as their Recognized And Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice (RAGAGEP).

If adopted as RAGAGEP to meet OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard and/or EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) Rule, and/ or claiming to use to meet General Duty Clauses or other safety requirements, then they became enforceable by the regulating authority. If an owner/employer adopts a RAGAGEP and says they are doing it to meet a regulatory requirement, then it becomes enforceable and the owner/ employer needs to be doing it to meet the regulating compliance. As usual, documentation is key to verify the RAGAGEP is being done as adopted and planned.

With the Poster Boards using numbers 100 to 104, developed IIAR Bulletins started numbering at number 105. Following, you can see how Bulletin numbers 105 to 116 were utilized and how their materials, where applicable, were embedded elsewhere to permit them to be superseded:

  • IIAR Bulletin No. 105 – Guidelines for Application and Maintenance of Safety Pressure Relief Valves for Ammonia Refrigerating Systems (1998)
    IIAR No. Bulletin 105 was integrated into ANSI/IIAR Standard 2-2008 and remains in future revisions.
  • Bulletin No. 106 – Guidelines for Prevention, Preparation, Response and Cleanup of Ammonia Releases (1998)
    Bulletin No. 106 was never officially published.
  • Bulletin No. 107 – Guidelines for Suggested Safety and Operating Procedures When Making Refrigeration Plant Tie-Ins (1997)
    Much of this information was embedded in ANSI/IIAR 5-2013 and now ANSI/IIAR 5-2019. Other information was embedded in ANSI/IIAR 4-2015 and now ANSI/IIAR 4-2020, as well as ANSI/IIAR 6-2019.
  • Bulletin No. 108 – Guidelines for Water Contamination in Ammonia Refrigeration Systems (1986)
    There was some design material extracted from Bulletin No. 108 that was embedded into ANSI/ IIAR 2-2021’s and ANSI/IIAR 6-2019’s normative material.

Because the remaining material was informative, ANSI/IIAR 2-2021 absorbed the informative design material in (Informative) Appendix P. Removal of Water from a Refrigeration System and ANSI/IIAR 6-2019 absorbed the informative (non-design) general material in (Informative) Appendix C. Water Contamination in Ammonia Refrigeration Systems. The normative information for design was integrated into ANSI/IIAR 2-2021 and normative non-design information was integrated into ANSI/IIAR 6-2019.

The Bulletin No. 109 (Informative) Ammonia Refrigeration System Safety Checklists – which were adopted by many owners/employers as their Recognized And Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice (RAGGAEP) – were updated and became (Informative) Appendix B Ammonia Refrigeration System Safety Checklists in ANSI/IIAR 6-2019. In general terms, where the historical so called “109’s” were being used (i.e., the checklists), the owner/employer can continue and easily transition to use the 6-Bs (i.e., upgraded checklists) from ANSI/IIAR 6-2019, Appendix B (in place of the old 109s).

On March 18, 2001, the IIAR Standards Committee began the consideration to divide Bulletin No. 110 into the following three (3) documents:

  1.  Startup
  2. Inspection
  3. Maintenance

After the onset of the consideration to divide IIAR Bulletin No. 110 into three (3) documents, number 110 would be for “Startup”, and numbers 113 and 115 were put, respectively, as placeholders for “Inspection” and “Maintenance” (since numbers 112 and 114 were already taken/reserved). In regard to splitting up Bulletin No. 110’s information, it was found that other material within the guideline besides, “Startup”, “Inspection”, and “Maintenance” needed to be placed elsewhere as well.

There were continued discussions and further observations done for months that led into a few years. Meanwhile, multiple model codes were embedding or trying to embed ammonia refrigeration requirements and regulatory agencies were referencing consensus developed standards.

For that reason, the consideration of dividing up the material eventually resulted in the decision to proceed and develop consensus developed IIAR Standards instead of having IIAR Bulletins as guidelines.

Early in 2007, the IIAR Standards Committee decided to pursue the development of an: “IIAR SUITE OF STANDARDS” On June 19th, 2007, the IIAR Board of Directors approved the plan to develop an “IIAR Suite of Standards”. So, Bulletin No. 110 was eventually divided up and embedded elsewhere. The Ammonia Characteristics and Hazards section was embedded into the Ammonia Data Book. From the IIAR Bulletin No. 110 Table of Contents, you can see how the rest of the material was divided and embedded into the IIAR Suite Standards as follows:

  • Bulletin No. 111 – Guidelines for Ammonia Machinery Room Ventilation (1991, 2002)
    The information contained in this bulletin was initially embedded in ANSI/ IIAR 2-2008 and carried through subsequent revisions and addendums to ANSI/IIAR 2-2021.
  • Bulletin No. 112 – Guidelines for Ammonia Machinery Room Design (1998)
    The information contained in this bulletin was embedded in ANSI/IIAR 2-2008 and carried through subsequent revisions and addendums to ANSI/IIAR 2-2021.
  • Bulletin No. 113
    Was a placeholder if Bulletin No. 110 was split up.
  • Bulletin No. 114 – Guidelines for: Identification of Ammonia Refrigeration Piping and System Components (1991)
    Bulletin No. 114 material was placed as Guidelines (and not a Bulletin anymore) in ANSI/IIAR 2-2021, Appendix Q. (Informative) Guidelines for the Identification of Ammonia Refrigeration Piping and System Components.
  • Bulletin No. 115
    Was a placeholder if Bulletin No. 110 was split up.
  • Bulletin No. 116 – Avoiding Component Failure in Industrial Refrigeration Systems Caused by Abnormal Pressure or Shock (1992)

There was some design material extracted from Bulletin No. 116 that was embedded into ANSI/IIAR 2-2021’s and ANSI/IIAR 6-2019’s normative material. Because the remaining material was informative, ANSI/IIAR 2-2021 absorbed the informative design material in (Informative) Appendix O. Designing to Avoid Component Failure Caused by Abnormal Pressure or Shock and ANSI/IIAR 6-2019 absorbed the informative (non-design) general material in (Informative) Appendix D. Avoiding Component Failure in Industrial Refrigeration Systems Caused by Abnormal Pressure or Shock.

This should explain the history of the onset of the IIAR Bulletins, their evolution and growth, as well as, eventually how the decision to strive for developing “consensus” documents drove the development of the “IIAR Suite of Standards” which captured the applicable normative and (mainly) informative material of the IIAR Bulletins. So, what happened to the IIAR Bulletins? With consensus being the main driver, they were captured applicably elsewhere in the IIAR Suite of Standards, whether normatively or informatively, and then were superseded!