INDUSTRY COMMENT


What the F-Gas phase-down means for your refrigeration estate


Refrigeration investment across the UK’s industrial sector has slowed as organisations take a more cautious approach. The direction of travel towards natural refrigerants is largely well understood, so the reason isn’t a lack of awareness, but a reluctance to commit significant capital before the government sets out a clearer roadmap for F-Gas phase- down. That caution is understandable but a risk in its own right, says Mat Noon, divisional director of Integral Cooling Tech


life, and factoring in the efficiency degradation that accumulates through age and repeated refrigerant changes, gives facilities teams a clear view of where risk is concentrated and on what timescale decisions will need to be made. It also aids the conversation with budget holders, moving from a generalised case for investment to a specific, evidence- based account of which assets are approaching the end of viable service life and what the consequences of inaction are.


When it comes to T


refrigerant strategy, the question is no longer whether to transition, but which refrigerant to adopt and when. In most industrial and


he existing UK framework aligns broadly with EU targets, phasing down HFC availability to around 70% of the 2015 baseline by 2030. Late last year, however, Defra consulted on a more accelerated


approach. The outcome, including timelines, sector-specific provisions and any transitional arrangements, remains unconfirmed. For building services professionals responsible for long-term capital planning on sites with substantial refrigeration infrastructure, that ambiguity hinders their ability to plan for the future. There is also growing uncertainty around


PFAS, also known as ‘forever chemicals’. Many organisations that transitioned to lower-GWP HFO refrigerants over the past decade are now facing renewed scrutiny, as these gases fall within emerging PFAS regulatory definitions. For those that have already invested once, this raises further questions about long-term viability and the risk of further regulatory change. But waiting for clarity does not equate to being prepared when it arrives. In the meantime, quota restrictions are already tightening refrigerant supply, intensifying the pressure regardless of the final policy direction. For food production facilities and industrial sites operating around the clock, the more immediate concern is not the cost of sourcing replacement refrigerant following a leak, but whether it can be sourced at all. On sites where cooling underpins production continuity, the consequences of a supply failure extend well beyond compliance issues. Rather than accelerate investment


prematurely, the practical response is to use the window that currently exists to build the kind of detailed asset intelligence that makes future decisions better-informed and less exposed to disruption. This starts with knowing precisely what’s installed across a site or estate, including an asset survey, current F-gas registers and accurate records of refrigerant types, system ages, efficiency data and maintenance histories. In many cases, this kind of baseline is incomplete, meaning forward planning is still built on assumptions rather than hard evidence. In some instances, the additional energy spend over a relatively short period can outweigh the capital investment organisations were hoping to avoid. A robust asset survey creates the foundation for meaningful lifecycle assessment. Mapping systems against realistic remaining service


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food production environments, the choice will come down to ammonia or CO2


. Ammonia


offers the highest thermodynamic efficiency of any available refrigerant and has decades of proven performance in demanding industrial


applications. Modern low-charge systems have addressed many of the safety concerns historically associated with ammonia, though the upfront capital requirement remains significant and the pool of engineers with the expertise is becoming more limited. CO₂ can present a different proposition, with broader contractor availability owing to the early adoption throughout the commercial sector and, in many configurations, a more straightforward procurement and installation process. Factors that carry real weight where operational continuity and programme certainty are critical.


The right answer is site-specific, shaped by application, asset life expectancy, organisational risk appetite and decarbonisation commitments. There is also a growing recognition that different refrigerants and system architectures can be deployed across a single estate to suit varying operational demands, moving away from reliance on single, ageing systems towards more integrated and resilient approaches. What is consistent across all of them is that arriving at that answer requires preparation that can and should begin now. Organisations that invest in understanding their refrigeration estate today – its condition, its vulnerabilities and its trajectory – will be in a far stronger position to act decisively when the regulatory position firms up. The uncertainty in the market is not a reason to defer that work. Waiting for complete clarity is unlikely to be a viable strategy.


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