According to foreign media reports, Chemours announced that from January 1, 2020, it will stop supplying high GWP refrigerants R404A and R507A in the European Union.

The announcement comes at a time when European F-gas regulations (517/2014) are preparing to impose a ban on high GWP refrigerants from January 1, 2019.

According to the European F-gas regulations phase-out schedule, HFC refrigerants with a GWP value greater than 2500 will be banned for maintenance and replenishment of refrigeration or freezing systems, involving refrigerant charge of 40 tons of CO2e or more. This is equivalent to approximately 10.2 kg of R404A, a refrigerant commonly found in medium-sized systems. Small and sealed systems are not affected by the ban, but manufacturers of most such systems have transitioned to low GWP refrigerants.

In addition to the commonly used R404A, the ban includes the replacement gases R422D for R507 and R22, both of which have GWP values exceeding 2500. The ban applies across Europe.

This rule also applies to companies that have stored these refrigerants before this date. The recovered or recovered refrigerant can still be used until 2030.

It is understood that Honeywell, one of Chemours’ main competitors, terminated the sales of R404A in 2018. Chemours has provided some lower GWP value alternatives in its Opteon range, including XP40 (R449A), XL40 (R454A) and XL20 (R454C).