propane as natural refrigerant

Taking responsibility for our environment, the use of refrigeration plants with natural refrigerants has become an absolute necessity in all areas.
Every year, several million tonnes of environmentally harmful CO2 emissions are released by synthetic refrigerants which escape into the environment.

In order to avoid this, there are natural refrigerants such as propane, ammonia, propene and butane which avoid such emissions. According to the current state of the art, the required refrigeration technology is capable of using these refrigerants in a highly efficient way.

The use of natural refrigerants is becoming increasingly important within the legislation and is regulated by the EU Regulation No 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases regulation). Here, the nearly complete synthetic refrigerant phase-out and a change to natural refrigerants is regulated. It is aimed at completing this by 2030.

Propane is a highly efficient and - with the right refrigeration technology - a very safe refrigerant. Propane is one of the natural refrigerants and thus considered to be very environmentally friendly.

• Safe operation of the plant even at high outdoor temperatures (>+50 °C)
• Closed refrigerant circuit with brine connections
• Efficient operation in summer as well as winter
• Reduction in maintenance costs, no leak tests
• Low pressure levels below 28 bar
• Environmentally friendly operation of the plant

According to the EU F-gases regulation, the common synthetic refrigerant phase-out has already been decided. The restrictions regarding refrigerants, which primarily had an ozone depletion potential, had already been introduced several years ago. Today, these refrigerants are prohibited in Germany. However, the refrigerants used today have a high share in global warming by the greenhouse effect. It is partly at a load which is more than 1000 times higher than e.g. regarding natural refrigerants. The restriction of these refrigerants was determined on the basis of the GWP (Global warming potential, which exists for each refrigerant). Accordingly, refrigerants with GWPs > 2,500 will be prohibited in the future. Refrigerants with lower GWP can still be used, but a so-called phase-down is planned to start in 2020. Regarding this phase-down, it is aimed at restricting the availability of the refrigerants, or an increased tax is possibly imposed on these refrigerants.

Natural refrigerants are not affected by this regulation. Thus, they are absolutely future-proof. Future changes of the refrigeration plants to new refrigerants or the increased costs resulting from the phase-down are completely avoided by the use of natural refrigerants.

Natural refrigerants are absolutely future-proof.

According to the F-gases regulation, there is the provision for synthetic refrigerants to have the plant checked for leaks according to the following criteria. This increases the maintenance costs. When using natural refrigerants, this check is not necessary.