SUPERMARKET SYSTEMS & EQUIPMENT
Refrigeration at a crossroads
Mat Noon, refrigeration director, Integral Cooling Tech, discusses how to navigate F-Gas uncertainty and the shift to natural refrigerants.
T Mat Noon
"Verifi cation provides
reassurance that a repair partner has been assessed against agreed industry
expectations."
he big challenge in the refrigeration market right now is uncertainty around changes to F-Gas regulations. While there is a clear direction of travel towards natural refrigerants – whether that’s ammonia, CO2
or hydrocarbons – many organisations are reluctant to make major capital investment decisions before the government provides more defi nitive guidance on the UK’s phase-down approach.
The market is essentially caught between several moving parts. Under the current regime, UK guidance broadly aligns with EU regulations, setting out a phased reduction in HFC availability to around 70% of the baseline by 2030. In November, however, Defra consulted on a more aggressive phase-down approach, though the timeline remains unclear.
There is also the issue of PFAS, often referred to as ‘forever chemicals’. Many organisations moved to lower-GWP HFO refrigerants over the past decade, but these gases are now under increased scrutiny because they contain PFAS. Many HFO refrigerants fall within the emerging PFAS regulatory defi nitions, and some degrade into highly persistent substances, leading to increased regulatory scrutiny. For organisations that may have already transitioned once, this has introduced further uncertainty around which refrigerants will remain viable over the long term. The result is a market that knows change is coming but is unsure how far or how fast to move. In the meantime, many sites continue to operate legacy systems that are becoming harder to support. Refrigerant availability, in particular, is emerging as a more immediate issue than refrigerant cost. Quota restrictions mean that, in the event of a leak, the challenge may not be how much replacement refrigerant costs, but whether it can be sourced at all. For operations that depend on continuous cooling, that becomes an operational risk as much as a compliance one.
Before organisations consider wholesale replacement, the most important step is understanding what they already have. In many cases, there should always be an up-to-date picture of the refrigerants in use, the condition of assets or their realistic remaining life. Without that
16 March 2026 •
www.acr-news.com
visibility, decisions tend to be reactive, driven by failure or disruption rather than planning. In practice, this starts with a detailed on-site assessment, typically involving a full asset survey, a review of F-gas registers, and the capture of accurate refrigerant and equipment data. From there, assets can be mapped against realistic life expectancy over the next fi ve years, allowing organisations to understand both best- and worst-case scenarios and begin planning accordingly.
This becomes particularly relevant where systems have undergone multiple refrigerant retrofi ts. While retrofi tting can extend compliance in the short term, it often comes with an effi ciency penalty. As a general rule, every refrigerant change reduces system effi ciency to some degree, while the cooling demand placed on the system remains the same. Over time, this creates a widening gap between what the system was designed to deliver and what it is realistically capable of sustaining, even though it may appear to be functioning normally. In some cases, the additional energy spend over a short period can outweigh the capital investment that organisations were hoping to avoid. Maintenance remains essential, particularly in terms of leak prevention and refrigerant containment, and increased maintenance frequencies can help manage risk in the short term. However, maintenance should be viewed as a holding tactic rather than a long-term solution. It can buy time, but it does not resolve underlying effi ciency or lifecycle limitations. As energy costs remain volatile, energy effi ciency is increasingly a commercial issue rather than simply a sustainability objective. Improving performance within existing systems can deliver immediate benefi ts, while also creating space to plan for longer-term change. When organisations do begin to look ahead, refrigerant strategy becomes central. Decisions are shaped by practical considerations such as building ownership, the expected life of the asset, and how long the system needs to perform reliably – whether that’s 10, 15 or 25 years – alongside wider business and decarbonisation objectives. Ammonia remains the most energy-effi cient refrigerant available and has a long-established track
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