Natural and synthetic refrigerants

The natural or synthetic refrigerant takes care of the transport of heat away from the cold storage. It will be discarded outside or sent to an installation that enables you to reuse your own surplus heat. Especially in our times, more and more care is demanded for the use of environmental friendly solutions: ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are examples of natural refrigerants for cooling and freezing.

Measuring the degree of environmental care of natural and synthetic refrigerants.

This works with a set of three values for each refrigerant:

• ODP, Ozone Depletion Potential, which stands for the amount of damage done to the ozone layer.
• GWP, Global Warming Impact. This index shows the amount of influence on the greenhouse effect.
• TEWI value. This is a combination of the GWP value and the energy consumption and stands for Total Equivalent Warming Impact. This value does not belong to the individual refrigerant, but rather to the entire installation as such. It is an indication of the emission of CO2 during the lifespan of the system. This value is more difficult to determine and is almost an attempt to compare apples to oranges.

New legislation

How does this affect you? Refrigerants that damage the ozone layer have already been banned in most countries and new legislation now aims at reducing the GWP of refrigerants (see also phasing out refrigerants). Geerlofs Refrigeration relies on natural refrigerants such as ammonia (NH3), propane and carbon dioxide (CO2). All of these have an ODP level of zero. Ammonia also has a GWP of 0, while that of CO2 is 1. While these refrigerants represent a ‘green’ solution, they are also possibly hazardous for people. Thus strict rules apply for the design and build up. Geerlofs follows all legislative rules to ensure safety.

Next to these natural refrigerants, we apply synthetic refrigerants that have a low GWP, such as R134a, R407a and R407c. All of these have a GWP lower than 2500 and, according to the new legislation, will still be usable for some time.

Is ammonia cooling an interesting option for you? Or another natural refrigerant? We will find out when our sales engineers run through the process and goals together with you.