Are you going to be influenced by the regulation of fluorinated greenhouse gases in aerosols?

A general effort to regulate the usage of ecologically harmful substances is certainly helpful, even though it many times brings economical or technical problems. It is also similar to a regulation of production of aerosols containing fluorinated greenhouse gases (HFCs) that is coming soon. These substances are relatively harmless and they don´t deplete atmospheric ozone layer, that´s why they are often used in aerosols (for example R134a) as a replacement for forbidden ozone depleting substances. However, they feature a very high global warming potential (GWP).

Shall we take the Carbon dioxide (CO2) as a basic gas causing global warming (so called greenhouse gas), then the HFC substances feature warming effect that ismore than 1000 times bigger than CO2. That´s why even the R134a often used in aerosols is affected by this EU regulation that does not allow the production and sale of substances with a GWP greater than 150.

However, R134a is a basic constituent of industrial aerosols for Dust removal (Dust Off)and freezing sprays (Freeze 75). Naturally, producers search for replacements for HFCs but it´s obvious that it will be a hard task, as a “compressibility” of these substances is very high and so the yield of sprays on their basis is unsurpassed so far. Substances able to replace R134a are already known and used in industry (CO2, HFO-1234ze, Propane/Butane and other) but because of the different technical and safety properties there´s no one-one replacement that would fully replace R134a in all segments. That´s why the new aerosols will probably have slightly different properties.

Thanks to this regulation, a significant increase in HFC-based spray prices can already be seen on the market. Legislation does not affect the sale of HFC products from stock, provided that they are produced before January 1, 2018, so you can still buy these sprays until the stock sells out.

We will inform you about possible replacements on time. In case of interest, please contact us at info@soselectronic.com