Propane heat pumps: the scientific community supports transition
Propane heat pumps are currently becoming the most popular choice for industrial and domestic air conditioning systems. Offering extremely high standards of efficiency and safety, they ensure excellent operational performance in any kind of environmental conditions and therefore represent the future of HVAC&R.
The international scientific community recently expressed its favourable opinion regarding the quality of these systems in a report. Following more than a decade of close collaboration with the air conditioning sector, it has been able to provide a competent and reliable appraisal, which could carry significant weight in the long-running debate on natural refrigerants.
Propane heat pumps are the future of air conditioning
Hydrocarbons (including propane), have been used in refrigeration for over a hundred years. They are natural gases with well-known properties which are recognised from a scientific point of view. In the last 30 years they have set the European standard in both industrial and domestic sectors.
Their longstanding presence on the market means that people now have detailed knowledge of the pros and cons of using them. This has enabled manufacturers to gain valuable experience in handling and installing them in cooling systems, with some impressive results.
Propane heat pumps (which evolved from other, now obsolete, heat management systems) have received the support of the scientific community, as mentioned above, who listed the advantages of such systems in the recent report. These included:
- reduced load loss;
- system efficiency which matches or exceeds that of systems using synthetic refrigerants;
- excellent safety levels (despite propane and other hydrocarbons being highly flammable);
- replacement parts readily available when required.
The success of these systems was reflected in the sales figures for 2022, when for example, it was calculated that out of every ten heat pumps purchased in Germany, six ran on propane (or other hydrocarbons). According to forecasts, this trend is expected to intensify in the coming years.
Revision of F-Gas regulations meets with approval of scientists
In recent months, the dominant issue affecting the HVAC&R sector has been the revision of F-Gas regulations and the document mentioned above also focused on that subject.
Scientists have supported the amendments to the regulations proposed by the European Community, defending them as the right route towards a more sustainable cooling and air conditioning industry.
Its promotion of the transition from fluorinated to natural gases is a clear indication of the direction Europe intends to take in the coming years in terms of the fight against climate change.
In these circumstances, propane systems are assuming even greater value due to their low environmental impact, allowing manufacturers to focus on optimising system performance rather than constantly searching for new alternative refrigerants.
The authors of the report also emphasised the need to approve the amendments as soon as possible in order to provide accurate dates for reaching the ambitious targets.
Nevertheless, it is essential to take into account the differing development times according to the category of product (internal/external/monoblock/split/multisplit/VRF), as well as their various application types (residential/commercial/industrial).
The report’s analysis concludes by underlining the importance of basing new heating and cooling systems on the use of natural refrigerants, so as to exploit their properties to the full.
