What are natural refrigerants?

Ammonia – Providing the right temperature for change

Ammonia – Providing the right temperature for change

The effects of climate change have led to an increasing demand for heating and cooling. And the use of certain refrigerants can cause the release of greenhouse gases or other pollutants. It’s clearly time for a change. What if...

GEA CO2

Carbon dioxide - compact refrigerant for creative solutions

High pressure, high effect

GEA Hydrocarbons

Hydrocarbons (e.g. propane, isobutane)

Versatile and tried and tested millions of times over

GEA Natural Refrigerants

Strictly speaking, natural refrigerants are not derived from nature. They are manufactured industrially like any other refrigerant.

We call them “natural refrigerants” because they are substances that occur directly in nature. The most commonly used ones are ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrocarbons (propane or isobutane). These substances were used as refrigerants until the 1930s before fluorinated gases (f-gases) became more common in refrigeration systems. Fluorine is a halogen and today we know that these halogenated gases increase the greenhouse effect.

Why use natural refrigerants?

We strongly believe that refrigeration systems with natural refrigerants are predestined to meet the growing global demand for cooling and air-conditioning. Why are we so sure? Because they are sustainable in two ways.

1. They are climate-neutral

Did you know that natural refrigerants, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, propane and isobutane, make no or only a small contribution to global warming (Global Warming Potential, or GWP for short = 0 to about 5.5), compared with the fluorinated refrigerants commonly available on the market?

2. They are cost-effective

Did you know that natural refrigerants are inexpensive to produce, have long-term availability and enable efficient operation of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems? So this means they offer you investment security. 


Critics claim that systems with natural refrigerants are more complex to build and far too expensive overall - prejudices that we are happy to refute. After all, anyone who takes a holistic view and considers all system costs, from installation and operation through to disposal, will come to the conclusion that refrigeration systems with natural refrigerants have the lowest lifetime costs.


RefrigerantOPDGWP
Ammonia (R717, NH3)00
Carbon dioxide (R744, CO2)01
Hydrocarbons, e.g. propane (R290) or isobutane (R600a)03
For comparsion: R134a01430
GEA Natural refrigerants - NH₃ CO₂ HC

Webinar: Natural refrigerants

Join GEA’s on-demand Cooling Club webinar on Natural Refrigerants, entitled “Back to the future – Refrigeration technology with natural refrigerants in times of climate change”. Learn from the experts why to make the switch from F-Gas refrigerants to the more environmentally friendly, future-proof, energy-efficient, natural refrigerants such as Ammonia and CO2.

GWP

The global warming potential (GWP) is a value that indicates the contribution to global warming. The GWP refers to the value of CO2 (GWP=1) as a benchmark. This means that a gas like R404A with its GWP of 3922 contributes 3922 times more to global warming than the same amount of CO2. Natural refrigerants have a GWP of 0 to 5.5.

ODP

The concept of the ozone depletion potential (ODP) is used as a measure of the effectiveness of a chemical compound in the degradation to the ozone layer it can cause, relative to the standard compound trichlorofluoromethane (R-11 or CFC-11) being fixed at an ODP of 1. Natural refrigerants have an ODP of 0.

GEA Solutions for natural refrigerants

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