Daikin Applied Europe claims to be using up to 400,000kg/yr of reclaimed R134a at its heat pump and chiller plant in Cecchina near Rome.
The company announced it was joining Daikin’s Loop circular economy programme at the end of last year. The scheme was first launched by Daikin Europe in 2019 with the use of R410A at its VRV air conditioning factory in Ostend.
Now the scheme has been adopted for R134a, the reclaimed gas being recovered and reprocessed in line with the international standard AHRI700 to better than 99.5% purity.
The programme ensures the continued availability of R134a, avoids its environmentally and financially costly end-of-life destruction and, being reclaimed product, is not included in the European F-gas quota system.
“The company is now using reclaimed gas in seven different models across its heat pump and chiller ranges, which will make a substantial difference to our environmental footprint and that of our customers,” said Daikin Applied UK product development manager James Henley.
The scheme covers the EWAD-TZ inverter screw air cooled cooling-only chillers, EWAD-T- screw fixed speed air cooled cooling-only chillers, EWYD-4Z B multipurpose inverter screw units, EWYD-BZ inverter screw air source heat pumps, EWWD-VZ water cooled inverter screw chillers, EWWD-DZ oil free centrifugal chillers and DWSC/DWDC oil-based centrifugal units.