The increased focus on climate change is forcing the refrigeration industry to undergoing a transition away from traditional HFCs. This is not a new trend, but the new F-Gas Regulation (EU 2024/573) will accelerate the transition with new bans, faster HFC quota reductions, increased focus on enabling enforcement, and more. Changing to hydrocarbons, ammonia, or carbon dioxide, brings challenges, and safety standards are being updated to guide the safe use of these refrigerants. New low-GWP synthetic refrigerants are being increasingly used, the most climate friendly are flammable, and although there are not as flammable as hydrocarbons, some safety precautions are necessary.
In parallel with the focus on climate change, there is a relatively new concern regarding PFAS chemicals. Most HFC’s and HFO’s are categorized as PFAS, although they behave very different from what was traditionally labeled as PFAS chemicals there is a concern that they may be banned by a future PFAS restriction in the REACH regulation.
The refrigerant manufactures are suggesting new refrigerants with GWP below 150, some of which are based on new HFO molecules which are not PFAS.

Asbjørn Vonsild will give an overview of the developments within new refrigerants and what is new in new F-Gas Regulation.

Bio:
Asbjørn Vonsild, an independent consultant, specializes in standards and legislation within refrigeration, A/C and heat pumps, especially related to flammable refrigerants.

He serves as a member of UNEP’s Refrigeration TOC (RTOC), an advisory group under the Montreal Protocol.
In 2023 he received the IEC 1906 Award for his leadership on IEC 60335-2-40 Ed. 7. He is chair of IEC/TC61D/SC61D, steering committee for IEC 60335-2-40, Chair of the Danish mirror committee for standards within large refrigeration systems (s251), convenor of the working group for aligning the refrigerant standards ASHRAE34 and ISO817, and member of numerous standardisation working groups related to ISO5149, EN378, ISO14903, ISO21922, IEC60335-2-118, ASHRAE34 and more.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Asbjørn held several positions at Danfoss for 12 years.

Asbjørn Vonsild

Keynote: Trends within new refrigerants and the new F-Gas Regulation

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Asbjørn Vonsild (Keynote)