Lab equipment wins F-gas exemption

EUROPE: Manufacturers of certain specialist low temperature laboratory equipment have won a temporary exemption from the F-gas regulations, allowing them to continue using refrigerants with a GWP of over 150.

The F-gas regulation (2024/573) prohibits the placing on the market of self-contained refrigeration equipment (except chillers) with a GWP of 150 or more from 1 January 2025. 

Following an approach from Germany, the European Commission has created a derogation for environmental simulation devices for application temperatures below -50°C, laboratory spray-drying or freeze-drying equipment and laboratory centrifuges.

The exemption request argued that due to safety concerns, such equipment currently relies on non-flammable refrigerants with GWPs of over 150 and that there was no equipment available on the EU market to meet the 150 GWP limit. 

The German request insisted that the development and certification of equipment that could use alternative substances below 150 GWP, while also addressing safety concerns, required more time. 

The European Commission agreed that this was a special case and that “sufficient time should be granted to avoid market disruption in the supply of such essential equipment”. It granted an additional exemption period of four years to 31 December 2028.

The exemption specifically applies to equipment labelled as:
(a) environmental simulation devices consisting of a test chamber used to reproduce a variety of environmental conditions, eg time-dependent temperature and humidity, for applications below -50°C;
(b) laboratory drying equipment used for the drying of liquid samples, by spray-drying or by freeze-drying;
(c) laboratory centrifuges used for separating fluids of different densities or liquids from solids in a rapidly rotating container.