With hydrocarbons chillers attracting more attention for many applications, Joachim Schadt, General Manager of Secon, a member of the Clean Cooling Coalition, discussed his company’s chillers in a live interview with ATMOsphere’s Marc Chasserot on Tuesday, June 28.

The 45-minute interview can be viewed below, on Hydrocarbons21.com, YouTube (ATMOsphereTV), and LinkedIn.

Secon was founded in 2010 with the aim of manufacturing chillers solely based on natural refrigerants and became one of the first companies to develop production-ready hydrocarbons chillers.

Schadt recalled the transition from synthetic refrigerants towards hydrocarbons, stating that “hydrocarbons are a really good solution in terms of efficiency.” The introduction of the first phase down of HFCs and bans with the EU F-Gas Regulation, Schadt explained, “had an impact on Secon as people started to realise that these synthetic fluorinated refrigerants are not the future and are not a safe investment.”

Asked about the current proposal from the European Commission, Schadt replied that he expected more ambition from Brussels, specifically mentioning technologically unnecessary exemptions that are still included in the proposed text.

Schadt also called the next generation of synthetic fluorinated refrigerants, commonly known as HFOs, “a disaster” due to the mounting scientific evidence highlighting their drawbacks once released into the environment.