🧊 Fluorinated gases

What the regulation requires

Regulation (EU) 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases requires the refrigerant gas (R32, R410A, R22...) to be recovered from any climate control unit before it is dismantled or crushed. Releasing that gas into the atmosphere at any stage of the process is strictly prohibited — during transport, while dismantling, or while shredding the unit. It is a serious offence that in Spain can carry fines of over €100,000.

What these gases are and why they pollute so much

Air conditioner refrigerants are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs): molecules made of carbon, hydrogen and fluorine. They don't damage the ozone layer like the older CFCs/HCFCs did (R22, now being phased out, is the exception — it contains chlorine and is ozone-depleting), but they have a very high Global Warming Potential (GWP): they trap far more heat in the atmosphere than the same amount of CO₂ over 100 years.

• R32 (difluoromethane, CH₂F₂) — GWP ≈ 675. The most common refrigerant in current domestic units, since it has the lowest impact among the common ones.
• R410A — a blend of R32 and R125 (pentafluoroethane) — GWP ≈ 2,088. Widely used in units installed over the last 15-20 years.
• R22 (chlorodifluoromethane, HCFC) — GWP ≈ 1,810 and also ozone-depleting. Banned in the EU since 2015, but still found in older units that need to be removed.

In practice: releasing 1 kg of R410A into the atmosphere has the same greenhouse effect as more than 2 tonnes of CO₂ — which is why the regulation is so strict, and why a unit should never be vented into the open air.

Our process

At Chatarreros Hermanos, gas extraction is carried out by a technician holding a fluorinated gas handler certificate (Spanish RD 115/2017), using certified recovery equipment. The gas is collected in certified containers for safe reuse or destruction before the unit moves on to dismantling.

What you can request

After your pickup, you can ask us for a gas recovery certificate stating the exact type and amount recovered from your unit — proof that nothing was released into the atmosphere.