Products by Type

R22 and other HCFCs

From 1 January 2010 the use of virgin HCFCs (including R22) is banned.

Reclaimed or recycled HCFCs may be used up to 2015, although only a limited amount of this will be available.

Below is a summary of the options available for our customers from 2010.

For full details visit our award-winning campaign site

Options available

There are three options:

do nothing. This is a high-risk strategy. Is recycled or reclaimed refrigerant available to you and at what cost?
replace equipment and move to a natural refrigerant such as ammonia, carbon dioxide or hydrocarbons. This is an expensive option
retrofit with HFC refrigerants. This is the low-cost option. A wide range of retro-fit refrigerants exist, but no 'one size fits all'. Alternatives need to be engineered and trialled.

Recycled versus reclaimed

recycled refrigerant is user-generated and can be of unknown quality. It could contain harmful contaminants which may damage a refrigerant system or affect its performance
it can only be used by those undertaking the recovery (e.g. a contractor) or the client the recovery was performed for (e.g. the end user)
they cannot be made available to third parties either for payment or free of charge
reclaimed HCFCs are recovered HCFC refrigerants which have been chemically reprocessed to a specific industry standard
BOC reclaim R22 refrigerant to ARI 700 specification, the same as virgin product
reclaimed HCFCs may be placed on the market and used by contractors and plant owners
the cylinders will be properly labelled as 'reclaimed'
in summary, reclaimed material has been reprocessed to a specified quality which is suitable for use in a refrigeration system whereas recycled material is of an unknown quality - it might contain contaminants which could impair the performance of a refrigeration system

Availability of reclaimed R22

BOC has a limited quantity of reclaimed R22 available. Currently this is only being offered to our long-term, contracted customers who have had a historic demand for virgin R22.

Any surplus product allocation will be made through our exclusive distributor HRP.

No other reclaimed HCFCs are available from 2010