Climate impact of refrigerants

The climate is changing, and all efforts are needed in this complex environmental challenge. When it comes to reclaimed refrigerants, it is important to note that reclaiming refrigerant does not lower any GWP- or ODP-values. It has the same GWP value as virgin product.

However, together we can concretely tackle climate change via two factors:

• Decreasing production and import of virgin refrigerants with high GWP.
• Implementation of circular economy and waste-to-value thinking: less waste and higher recycling rate.

This way we can decrease emissions caused by production of virgin products and by converting waste to valuable raw material, which is not misused or released into the atmosphere, less waste is created. Since 2016, our recovery and reclamation services have helped our customers to reduce over 1,4M kg of CO2-eq. which would have been caused by production, transportation and unnecessary destruction of refrigerants

F-gas regulation

EU:s new F-gas regulation (N:o 517/2014) was published in may 2014. The aim of the regulation is to protect the environment from harmful F-gases and reduce their emissions by 60 % by 2030. This phase down is facilitated by introducing F-gas quotas, limiting the imports of F-gases into the EU.

Image 1. F-gas regulation quota system. (F-gas regulation 2014)

At the beginning of 2020, F-gases with a GWP-value of 2500 or above were prohibited in appliance maintenance with some exceptions to the rule. A common refrigerant with a GWP above 2500 is R404A, which is widely used in grocery stores. Substances with a GWP above 2500 can still be used during maintenance until the end of 2029, if the substance is reclaimed.