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Regulation (EU) No. 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases contains a number of requirements for service technicians and operators of equipment containing fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Service technicians and operators
Service engineers and operators of refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump equipment must ensure that emissions are avoided and reduced. They must take protective measures to prevent leaks. In particular, they need to know whether and how often to check for leaks at the facility and they need to keep records of these interventions. Once a leak is detected, it must be repaired without undue delay.
Service staff
Service personnel must be certified to install, service, maintain, repair, or decommission equipment, as well as to perform leak checks and end-of-life gas recovery.
Operators
Operators who assign tasks such as installation, servicing, maintenance, repair and decommissioning, as well as leak control and end-of-life gas recovery, to another company must ensure that the company is certified.
Automatic leak detection systems may also be required in some installations. The specific requirements depend on the magnitude of the F-gas dose in the installation as measured by CO2 equivalent, which are the units in which the potential impact on global warming is expressed.
Whenever inspecting equipment containing components containing F-gas, service companies and the operator must ensure that the technician in charge of this task holds the appropriate F-gas certificate or has received training for this type of equipment. In addition, operators of all types of equipment must take measures for the proper recovery and/or destruction of F-gases prior to the decommissioning of such equipment.
The Regulation also introduces the so-called “HFC phase-down”. The phase-down of HFCs means that the supply of HFCs will become increasingly limited, especially for HFCs with relatively high global warming potentials (GWPs). For this reason, operators have a clear incentive to invest in installations using the gas with the lowest possible impact on global warming, including those using alternative gases such as hydrocarbons, ammonia and carbon dioxide.
What is GWP (Global Warming Potential)?
GWP is used as a parameter to indicate the relevance of gases to atmospheric warming. It is calculated as the annual warming potential of one kilogram of F-gas relative to one kilogram of CO2.
The global warming potential of F-gases is typically in the order of thousands. For example, R404A (GWP 3 922) is 3 922 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2. Preventing F-gases from escaping into the atmosphere is therefore a very effective way of reducing emissions that contribute to climate change. This makes it all the more important for industry and operators to switch to high-efficiency refrigerants with low to very low global warming potential (GWP) in a timely manner.
Gradual reduction
As part of the phase-down, the amount of HFCs (in CO2 equivalent) placed on the EU market will be gradually reduced by 79% between 2015 and 2030.
This mechanism does not prohibit the sale of any particular HFC. However, with less CO2 equivalent available overall, prices are expected to increase gradually, especially for high GWP (and correspondingly high CO2 equivalent consumption) HFCs. The price increases will be felt by operators when planning future maintenance and servicing of equipment and systems containing HFCs.