EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
the help of Michael Labacher, sales
manager of A-Gas.
Not only is this service assisting
the market in staying compliant with
SANS 10147 (which prohibits anyone
from venting refrigerant gas into the
atmosphere), but clients also get money
back if they return the recovered
refrigerant to A-Gas, explains Labacher.
A-Gas has
already successfully
completed a
few sites in both
Cape Town and
Johannesburg,
recovering the
refrigerant from
the operations in
question.
Although it is illegal to vent gas, A-Gas,
which has a significant market share in
the South African refrigerant game, is only
receiving back a very small percentage
38
of refrigerant from industry. Labacher
estimates it to be as low as 1%. This could
only imply that large amounts of ozone
depleting substances such as R22 are still
being vented into the atmosphere …
But, it takes a long time to recover
refrigerant and the contractor doesn’t
get anything in return for this. So,
there really is no incentive (other than
the law, of course). Now, with Rapid
Recovery, contractors can recover gas
cheaper than they can do it themselves
and get money back for returning
the refrigerant. Upon returning the
recovered gas to A-Gas, they receive a
coupon for a discounted price on their
next refrigerant purchase.
This process isn’t meant to take work
away from the contractor, Labacher
reiterated; it’s to help them. A-Gas would
simply send a technician to site, recover
the gas, and leave again, leaving the
contractor to do his job without wasting
precious working hours. When it comes
to applications such as supermarkets,
speeding up this recovery process would
be greatly beneficial to a client who
wouldn’t have to remove produce from
their fridges. Especially for breakdowns,
Rapid Recovery would allow the
quick removal (and replacement) of
refrigerant so a certain component can
be replaced/fixed.
Contractors in Cape Town get a first-hand experience of Rapid Recovery.
A-Gas has already successfully
completed a few sites in both Cape
Town and Johannesburg, recovering
the refrigerant from the operations in
question. They plan to grow this business
significantly this year.
This system is already very successful in
the US, where it has been operational for
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
over 15 years, during which time in-house
expertise has been built up and various
intellectual property registered. A-Gas
will bring this technology to the rest of
the world through its wide distribution
network, with it already being launched
in the UK and launching in Australia this
CLA
year.
COLD LINK AFRICA • January | February 2018