Ceced Italia faces up to the refrigerants problems

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Ceced Italia has recently underlined the problematic situation the Italian industry is living in the sectors of professional cooling, domestic boilers and domestic dryers using heat pump, due to difficulty in the supply of refrigerant gas.
With the (EU) 517/2014 Regulation, in fact, the European Commission has set a progressive elimination path of the fluorinated gases, setting up a timing for the phase-down of certain compounds. In particular, the main refrigerants used in the above mentioned sectors such as (HFC) R404a and R134a cannot be used in some applications since 1/1/2020 or 1/1/2022.
In addition it is visible a disproportionate and unjustified increase in the prices of hydrofluorocarbons and the low availability of such substances by those who produce them as well as the lack of authorizations for the use of quotas; this means a double increase in costs for equipment importers: the price of gas and the use authorizations.
Industry companies are committed in replacing HFCs with alternative gas but currently there are no available comparable refrigerants in terms of performance, safety, and replacement.
So, for some of these technologies it is impossible to replace current gas and at the same time comply with European and national laws and regulations. Ceced Italia therefore believes that it needs to make the Institutions aware of how to deal with a critical situation that is putting at risk a leading sector in the Italian industry, with particular suffering for small and medium-sized businesses.