Adapting industrial cooling to new refrigerant regulations

The world of industrial cooling is changing as environmental regulations encourage manufacturers to move towards refrigerants with a lower climate impact.

One of the most important changes concerns the gases used inside air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment.

Refrigerants absorb and release heat, allowing cooling systems to maintain the temperatures needed to protect equipment and processes. However, some commonly used refrigerants have a high Global Warming Potential (GWP), which means they can contribute significantly to global warming if released into the atmosphere.

As a result, both the European Union and the United States are progressively limiting the use of high-GWP refrigerants in industrial cooling equipment.

The regulatory landscape

The transition towards cleaner gases is driven by two major updated frameworks: the EU F-Gas Regulation (2024/573) in Europe and the AIM Act managed by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the United States.

In Europe, new restrictions taking effect from 2027 introduce a GWP limit of 150 for several categories of air-conditioning equipment, with specific requirements depending on the equipment type, cooling capacity and applicable safety exceptions.

In the United States, the AIM Act is also driving the transition towards lower-GWP refrigerants. For example, new data centre and IT equipment cooling products are subject to a GWP limit of 700 from 2027.

For manufacturers, the challenge is developing cooling solutions that meet these evolving requirements while maintaining the reliability and performance expected in critical infrastructure applications.

Project Greenline 2.0 initiative

At Vikinor, Project Greenline 2.0 represents the next logical step in our ongoing engineering transition towards next-generation cooling technologies.

The first phase of Project Greenline successfully reduced our systems’ climate impact by approximately 56% by transitioning from traditional R-134a to the plug-in replacement refrigerant, R-513A. Building on that, our current development focus shifts to R-1234yf: an ultra-low GWP refrigerant engineered to meet upcoming strict regulatory requirements while maintaining stable and efficient cooling performance.

This development supports our response to upcoming regulatory requirements while continuing to address the cooling needs of critical infrastructure.

Selecting a lower-GWP refrigerant involves more than meeting environmental requirements. We also need to consider how it performs within our cooling solutions and the operating conditions of critical infrastructure.

Through our engineering and testing activities, we have focused on three key areas:

• Cooling performance: Maintaining the cooling capacity and stable operation required to protect sensitive electronics in demanding environments.
• Energy efficiency: Evaluating energy consumption to ensure that reducing the refrigerant’s climate impact does not come at the expense of efficient operation.
• Compact design: Integrating R1234yf into our existing product designs while preserving the compact dimensions needed for installations where space is limited.

Looking ahead

Project Greenline 2.0 is a core part of Vikinor’s long-term approach to developing cooling technologies prepared not only for today’s requirements, but also for the future evolution of global environmental standards.

As international regulations continue to tighten, our commitment remains focused on leading the cooling industry toward reliable, future-proof, and zero-impact cooling solutions.