REFRIGERANTS No sparks, just chill


Refrigerant Solutions Ltd (RSL) is pushing boundaries with non-fl ammable refrigerant blends designed for retrofi ts into existing systems. Managing Director John Poole outlines how these solutions could reshape the industry’s approach to performance and peace of mind.


T John Poole 'RSL is


working on blends which are non- fl ammable, energy effi cient, low toxicity and with a GWP less than 10.'


hrough its F-Gas regulation, the European Commission (EC) is set on fi rstly severely restricting HFC availability and then banning them altogether in an eventual phaseout. The intention is to rely entirely on so-called ‘natural’ refrigerants such as carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrocarbons. In my opinion, this borders on misrepresentation since the EC blatantly ignores, or does not understand, that these products are not natural, being manufactured in large chemical plants. Admittedly, they have very low GWPs but are beset by serious hazards to end-users with fl ammability, toxicity (ammonia suff ers from both) and, in the case of CO2


, very high


pressures. Consistent attempts by the industry to take a more rational, pragmatic attitude to regulation have been brushed aside. We are now in a situation where HFC cutbacks are already at 75% of the baseline (2015) and will reach 95% by 2030. Other countries and regions are also phasing down HFCs, but on a less aggressive timetable than the EU. A family of chemicals known as hydrofl uoro-olefi ns (HFOs) has been developed by the fl uorochemical manufacturers, which provides the basis for a practical and lower-cost solution. HFOs possess a double bond, resulting in very low atmospheric lifetimes and thus GWPs below 10 and sometimes below 1, even better than CO2


. Although HFOs cannot replace directly low


boiling refrigerants such as R22, R134a, R404A and R507, used in selective combination with lower GWP HFCs, they provide low GWP, A1/A2L products with equal or higher effi ciencies. Against this background, RSL has developed new non- fl ammable blends of refrigerants which can readily be


retrofi tted into existing installations with few, if any, changes required to the equipment. Retrofi tting with ammonia, CO2


and


hydrocarbons is not possible for obvious reasons, but there is a large amount of equipment out there which is not time-expired and needs to be kept in operation. Developing retrofi t blends for existing equipment was RSL’s original primary goal, but it is now developing very low-GWP blends for new equipment. As part of this programme, RSL has commercialised three new blends, all of which have A1 safety classifi cations from ASHRAE. RS-20/R480A, which has GWP 291, is a non-fl ammable retrofi t


replacement for R134a. Initially targeted at replacing R134a in the mobile air-conditioning automotive sector, it is more widely a direct drop-in replacement across the range of applications where R134a is commonly found, including refrigerated transport, cold stores, supermarkets, cellar cooling, dairy chillers, and vending machines. RS-20 has a GWP that is 80% lower than R134a and less than half that of alternatives such as R513A and R513B. RS-20 can be charged into existing systems operating without modifi cations or a change of lubricant, and is a perfect example of combining the properties of HFCs with HFOs to produce a non-fl ammable refrigerant blend with a substantial reduction in GWP to replace a long-established product, in this case R134a. In April 2025, a ham drying room at the Industrias Cárnicas Peñafría facility in Palencia (Spain) was converted to RS-20 (R-480A) by Inter Procesos Térmicos. The installation operated for over 25 years, initially on R22, which was subsequently replaced by RS-45 (R434A) and then


30 January 2026 • www.acr-news.com


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