Author here, very excited to share this with HN. Been seeing a lot of engineers thinking about getting into climate so I thought people might find it interesting. Happy to answer any questions!
1. Scrappers likely don't have the skills, equipment or inclination that AC technicians do.
2. Those self-contained units typically have a lot less refrigerant than the split AC systems (or large chillers) we see, which require venting in order to remove once installed. A refrigerator might have only 30 grams of charge, vs a split system with 2-3 kg.
1. Already operates at negative pressure with a high enough temperature and long enough residence time 2. Alkaline environment neutralizes the HF and HCl that are produced when the refrigerant burns. 3. Already consuming massive amounts of energy so the marginal energy use is negligible. 4. Allows use to use an existing facility instead of building our own -- great for developing countries where building infra is harder (but cement plants are everywhere).
[1] https://ozone.unep.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/TEAP-DecX...
1. A trial burn done by an independent lab to make sure that under normal operating conditions, when destroying refrigerant the levels of those + other chemicals are below certain thresholds
2. automatic monitoring and shutoff mechanisms if the kiln deviates from normal conditions
The tax deductibility and employer gift matching means you could go a lot farther for each dollar a donor is willing to spend.
Edit: https://www.google.com/search?q=charity+retire+carbon+credit... has plenty more