Freons or hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) are the most widespread refrigerant gases on the market today. They have replaced chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC), which damage the ozone layer.

SOL’s catalogue comprises a vast range of freons for a variety of different uses, designed to meet customers’ highly specific requirements.

Update on the new EU F-GAS Regulation

European Regulation 2037/2000, integrated by European Regulation 1005/2009, came into force on January 1, 2010 and prohibited the sale of all HCFC refrigerants (e.g. R-22), which damage the ozone layer. An extension to the use of regenerated HCFC was granted until December 31, 2014.

The European regulation, known as F-GAS”, 517/2014, came into force on June 9, 2014 and has applied from January 1, 2015. It provides for the progressive reduction of fluorinated greenhouse gases, which possess a high global warming potential (GWP), in favour of more sustainable refrigerant gases.

The reduction, or phasing-down, process assigned admissible HFC market quotas to be reduced over the course of time, down to 21% of the amount sold in 2015 by the year 2030.

The regulation also prohibits the use of HFC systems in hermetically sealed domestic and commercial applications such as fridges, freezers and mobile air-conditioning systems:

• from January 1, 2015 for domestic appliances (refrigerators and freezers) using HFC gas with a GWP greater than 150;
• from January 1, 2020 for fridges and freezers for commercial use with a GWP of 2500 or more;
• from January 1, 2022 for fridges and freezers for commercial use with a GWP of 150 or more;
• from January 1, 2020 for mobile conditioners for domestic use that use HFC gas with a GWP of 150 or more;
• from January 1, 2025 for monosplit conditioning systems containing less than 3 kg of fluoride greenhouse gas, which contain or whose operation depends on fluoride greenhouse gas with GWP equal to or more than 750.

As an alternative to fluoride gases with high GWP (such as R-23, R-508, R-507 or R-404), for new plant or retrofits of existing plant natural SOL offers refrigerant gas or gas with almost zero greenhouse effect (HFO). 

Application table