F-Gas

The original F-Gas Regulation was adopted in 2006 to manage and track the use of highly polluting synthetic fluorinated HFC gases. Further changes to the F-Gas legislation were made in 2014, these amendments centre heavily around the aggressive phase down in the supply and use of HFC Refrigerants.

The quantity of HFCs that can be placed on the EU market will be cut in a series of steps. By 2030, only 20 per cent of the quantity of HFCs that were sold in 2015 will be available.

The remaining 20% supply will be for specialist applications and not for mainstream refrigeration use.

HFC refrigerants have suffered a cost rise in excess of 400% between 2016 and 2020 with these looking set to continue to rise as further quotas are imminent.

As one of the world’s largest polluters, synthetic HFC refrigerants are now subject to aggressive phase down legislation, limited availability and higher costs which are forcing end users to choose alternative cooling solutions with a much lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) than HFC gases can provide.

Continued capital investment in HFC refrigeration systems is not advisable.

Traditional refrigerant R404A is 3800 times more harmful than CO₂.

Even the new interim HFC refrigerants are 1700 times more harmful than CO₂. These interim HFC's are not a legal long term solution either.

CO₂ falls into safety group A1 which means it is non-toxic and non-flammable. CO₂ is the only natural refrigerant with an A1 safety rating. Ammonia is B2, i.e. toxic and low flammability, whist Hydrocarbons are A3, i.e. none toxic but highly flammable.

The pressures inside a CO₂ systems are higher that HFC systems, but after years of component development, these pressure are now the 'new normal' and perfectly safe.