www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za RACA Journal I May 2025 11
News incentive for proper disposal at certified waste facilities. This could help tackle the problem of end-of-life disposal while ensuring the return of cylinders for recycling or destruction.”
AFRICAN PROJECTS Another example was Kenya, where A-Gas recently delivered a fleet of recovery cylinders to kickstart refrigerant recovery. In Namibia, they helped establish a training and recovery centre in the northern part of the
Part of the presentation. country, and they are now awaiting government support to get the recovery operations fully underway. Labacher emphasises that Namibia’ s success could serve as a model for other countries in the region, and there is significant attention on Namibia from both the private sector and international funding agencies.
A-Gas has successfully recovered some Halon gases from Namibia, which were then transported to South Africa. While the recovery of Halon is an important step, the goal is to create a sustainable refrigerant recovery system for the entire SADC region, one that can scale as more countries adopt similar models.
Over the last 15 years, A-Gas has been systematically collecting CFCs across the region, and this year marked the first time it was able to successfully destroy refrigerants, a major milestone for the company.
Initially, A-Gas had hoped to ship the refrigerants abroad for destruction, specifically to their US plant, but regulatory barriers made that impossible. This forced the company to look for alternative solutions closer to home, and they partnered with a thermal treatment facility that became TIP-approved. This collaboration enabled the destruction of the refrigerants, marking a key achievement in regional refrigerant management.
In South Africa, A-Gas continues to tackle the problem of old refrigerant stocks. Over the past 12 months, A-Gas has recovered 110 tons of refrigerants, including CFCs and Halon, but Labacher was sanguine about future recovery expectations with next year’ s recovery numbers unlikely to be as high, given that the recovered refrigerants were primarily old stockpiles.
“ Even with these successful recovery efforts, the amount of refrigerant being recovered is still small compared to what is being supplied into the market. I estimate that A-Gas recovers less than 2.5 % of the refrigerants it supplies through our wholesale network. This stark contrast between supply and recovery highlights the scale of the challenge ahead, particularly with the ongoing phase-out of R-22, which is set to accelerate in the coming years. The refrigerant market will face a significant shortfall in the coming years unless robust recovery efforts are implemented on a larger scale.”
Labacher proposes the idea of forming a‘ mini task force’ that could meet quarterly to track progress on specific issues, hold countries accountable, and push for concrete results between the annual meetings. This task force could work on key initiatives in the interim to ensure that discussions lead to actionable progress, rather than just talking.
As a next step, Labacher expresses his desire to visit each of the countries involved in the programme.“ I’ d like to see firsthand the development of‘ Centres of Excellence’, which would serve as hubs for refrigerant recovery, training and capacity building. These centres could be a crucial part of creating a sustainable regional infrastructure for refrigerant management and would provide a tangible foundation for expansion into other regions of Africa.” RACA
Even with these successful recovery efforts, the amount of refrigerant being recovered is still small compared to what is being supplied into the market.
www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za RACA Journal I May 2025 11