Refrigerants - Environmental Responsibility

Background

The refrigeration and air conditioning industry is increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their products and services, namely:

1. Direct impact on the environment that occurs from the leakage of refrigerant gases into the atmosphere.  This can lead to ozone depletion and global warming via the greenhouse effect.
2. Indirect impact due to the energy consumption of refrigeration and air conditioning systems leading to CO₂ emissions that cause global warming.

The industry has made substantial progress over the past two decades in reducing its environmental impact.  The Montreal Protocol  has successfully driven a phase-out of the highest ozone depleting substances (CFCs) and the phase out of remaining ozone depleting substances (HCFCs) is well underway.    Refrigerant manufacturers have developed new refrigerants with lower environmental impact, and refrigeration and air conditioning equipment & systems have been developed to use these more eco-friendly products.

More recently, new legislation  and growing consumer demand is focusing the industry on how it can further reduce the global warming potential (GWP) of systems.  This is leading to a number of new lower GWP refrigerants being introduced, including HFOs and Natural Refrigerants, as well as increased focus on leak detection and the effective recovery, reclamation and destruction of used refrigerants.


LindeSupport

As a world renowned company with far-reaching technical expertise, Linde is ideally positioned to make a valuable contribution to the protection of our environment. We have therefore committed ourselves to the responsible use of natural resources, the development of clean technologies and the replacement of harmful substances with eco-friendly alternatives.

Our unrivalled industry knowledge combines with our proven technical expertise to help you make sense of an increasingly complex industry. Whether your application is air conditioning, commercial refrigeration, process chilling or heat extraction, we can help you meet environmental regulations & your sustainability agenda.

• Assistance in understanding legislation, the impact to you and how to ensure effective compliance.  Including information on ozone depletion, global warming, CFC  Phase out and EU HCFC Phase out legislation
• Wide range of fluorocarbon and natural refrigerant gases including non ozone depleting & lower global warming products
• Information on the environmental impact & benefits of refrigerants
• Technical support to identify the best refrigerant solution for your needs, including identification of alternative products when retrofitting an existing system – HCFC Retrofit information & CFC Retrofit information 
• Recovery, reclamation and destruction services
• Product Stewardship & safety support to ensure that you have the right systems in place to safely use refrigerants.

In short, we can give you all the information you need to make the right choice – for your business, for the environment and for society.