GovWire

A technician with qualifications to work with F gas must recover F gases from equipment, including when its reached the end of its life.

You must recover F gas from:

• commercial or industrial refrigeration systems
• refrigeration systems in trucks, trailers, ships and other vehicles
• stationary air conditioning (fitted to buildings and cant be moved)
• portable or mobile air conditioning systems
• stationary heat pump systems (fitted to buildings and cant be moved)
• stationary fire protection systems (for example, automatic fire suppression systems in large buildings)
• high voltage switchgear

You must recover F gas from other equipment if:

• its technically feasible
• the cost of doing so is proportionate

If not, you may need to send the whole unit to a licensed waste facility.

Use a registered waste carrier to send the equipment to your licensed waste facility.

You can email f-gassupport@environment-agency.gov.uk for advice.

Recovering F gas from aerosols

Its not cost effective to recover F gas from individual aerosols like spray paints or deodorants.

If you collect or use large quantities, you should send them to a licensed waste facility so they can recover the F gas.

Get your F gas reclaimed or recycled

Reclaimed F gas is reprocessed to the standard of virgin (unused) F gas.

You can send recovered F gas to a specialist reprocessing plant to get it reclaimed, recycled or destroyed.

This applies to both:

• F gas that can be removed from equipment and transported separately
• F gas incorporated into the equipment, for example in foam

The rules apply to all:

• refrigerants
• hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in foam insulation
• HFCs used in fire protection systems
• sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆) from high voltage switchgear
• propellants from aerosols
• solvents

If youre sending the F gas to a specialist reprocessing plant to be destroyed, you must use a registered waste carrier.

Using recycled F gas

Recycled F gas is re-using F gas following a basic cleaning process.

Recycled F gas with a global warming potential of more than 2,500 can only be used in equipment owned or operated by the:

• company that owned the refrigeration system from which the F gas was recovered
• company that carried out the recovery

Calculate the carbon dioxide equivalent quantity of an F gas using its global warming potential.