In Prague on 1st April 2015, a customer and journalist workshop discussing new refrigerants took place. In connection with the environmental protection and related legislation, Linde Gas takes the lead and offers products with a minimised negative impact on the climate. The latestEU F-gas regulation (EC 517/2014) which came into force 1st January 2015 was one of the main topics discussed.
After the opening introduction, representatives of DuPont – Chemours Company from Great Britain and Poland spoke. Their presentations were focused on two main topics – F-gas regulation regulation on the European refrigerant market and a presentation of the new series of refrigerants with the Opteon® trademark.
Linde Gas is the sole distributor ofOpteon®refrigerants that are produced byDuPont in the Czech and Slovakian market. They have been developed with the objective to reduce global warming. The global warming potential of a chemical substance is expressed as the GWP value;Opteon®products are up to 50% below the GWP of their predecessors.
The afternoon part of the program started with a visit to the current filling station in Linde Gas Czech and followed with a viewing of the newly finalised flammable refrigerant filling station. The construction of the new filling station is connected with the development and filling of products with a low GWP that are flammable. For this reason, Linde Gas extended the existing filling station capacity, modified the filling technology, and tightened the security measures.
After that, the workshop participants were trained in the safe handling of pressure cylinders. Finally, the closing presentation dealt with the actual information provided by the new F-gas regulation, the Czech market trends, the topical refrigerant offer from Linde Gas, and the new cylinder valves for refrigerant.
Feedback from workshop participants was positive. They appreciated the possibility to meet the representatives from DuPont – Chemours as they are one of the worldwide leading refrigerant producers. Both the customers and journalists made use of the opportunity to get first-hand information and learn more about the new refrigerant’s applications. Also the cylinder handling training gained participants’ interest, increased their awareness related to the principles of safe usage of pressure cylinders, and drew their attention to the possible risks.