Korea project to improve refrigerant management
21st June 2026
KOREA: The Korean Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute has announced an initiative to improve the country’s HFC refrigerant management.
Starting this month, the project will embark on full-scale research on refrigerant recovery technology, regeneration/destruction technology for mixed waste refrigerants, and the development of core technologies for converting refrigerant materials with a low GWP.
Refrigerant recovery is currently a legal requirement for equipment with a refrigeration capacity of 20RT or more. The project looks to expand this and develop high-performance recovery equipment that significantly improves the recovery speed. In addition, the government intends to ensure transparency in the refrigerant recovery process by linking the amount recovered with the Refrigerant Information Management System (RIMS), an online regulatory platform managed by the Korea Environment Corporation. RIMS tracks the lifecycle of fluorinated refrigerants from sale to usage, recovery, and disposal in line with the requirements of the Clean Air Conservation Act.
It is also intended to develop regeneration technology and high-efficiency and low-cost destruction technology.
In response to international regulations, Korea says it is also investing in developing low-charge, high-efficiency heat pump technology and a refrigerant leak detection and control system to enable the safe use of propane refrigerant in multi-unit dwellings such as apartments.
This technology development project is expected to contribute to achieving Korea’s National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target (NDC) by establishing a circular economy system that actively recovers and reuses waste refrigerants, while accelerating the introduction of next-generation eco-friendly refrigerants.
“We will do our utmost to reduce the burden on our industries and establish a robust refrigerant supply chain by proactively responding to the international community’s tightening regulations on refrigerants and actively supporting the introduction of next-generation eco-friendly and recycled refrigerants,” commented Kim Jin-sik, director general of the Air Environment Bureau at the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.
