Interested in heat pumps and the impact that the F-Gas Regulation Revision will have? Visit the BUILD UP YouTube channel to watch the full session.

The first session was entitled "Heat pumps based on natural refrigerants", and the event started with a presentation by Dr. Daniel Carbonell, from the Institute for Solar Technology, who gave a short overview of the TRI-HP project, which ends in a few days. Raphael Gerber then took the floor to talk about "Natural refrigerants in heat pumps", and Prof. Dr. Armin Hafner (Norwegian University of Science & Technology) spoke about "Application of CO2 & propane heat pumps in different sectors". 

To conclude the first half of the event, Dr. Sabrina Munao (ATMOsphere) focused on the market for heat pumps based on natural refrigerants, before Dr. Thomas Friedrich & Dr. Immanuel Stieß, from Institute for Social-Ecological Research, gave his talk on social acceptance of heat pumps. The intermission between the two sessions was used for a coffee break before tackling the second session, entitled "F-Gas Regulation: Phasing down HFCs & HFOs in heat pumps".

The second part of the conference started with an overview of the F-Gas Regulation Revision, followed by an explanation about the negotiations in ENVI on the F-Gas Regulation Revision, given by Stelios Kympouropoulos, Shadow-Rapporteur (EPP) ENVI Committee for European Parliament. After that, Kęstutis Kupšys (Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)) took the floor to speak about opinion of European Economic and Social Committee on the Revision. 

For its part, Prof. Dr. Michael Kauffeld (Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences) focused his speech in comparing the use of HFCs & HFOs with natural refrigerants in heat pumps, while Coen van de Sande, from the Association of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump contractors (AREA) spoke about the risks of rapid deployment of heat pumps based on natural refrigerants.

The session concluded with a panel Discussion on the phase-down of HFCs & HFOs in heat pumps, which included these participants: Thomas Nowak (European Heat Pump Association), Veerle Beelaerts (European Heating Industry), Davide Sabbadin (European Environmental Bureau) and Prof. Dr. Michael Kauffeld (Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences).

WATCH THE FULL SESSION HERE