The refrigerant eater

The cost for the decomposing of refrigerants coming from end of life refrigerators and other cooling equipment are rising more and more. Three, four or even more Euro’s per KG are becoming daily expenses for the recyclers of refrigerators. These cost are more and more effecting the financial results of the recycling companies in a negative way. We also have to consider that a growing part of the end of life refrigerators contain R600a better now as ISO-Butane. A flammable refrigerant. As solution for les pollution it is a good alternative. But collected during degassing and therefore mixed with non-flammable refrigerants it means that a growing part of the above mentioned costs are spend for the decomposing of a flammable refrigerant. In other words, a major part of the costs for the decomposing, or incineration if you want, is paid for the destruction of a flammable gas.

Since separation during processing is nearly impossible the degassing machine “inhale’s” all refrigerants. Ones mixed in the collecting tank it is impossible to separate them. Many test during the last thirty years showed that an operator processing sixty refrigerators or more per Hour is not able to separate the different refrigerants. It takes too much time and is therefore inefficient.         

A solution for all this is the Closed Loop degassing machine constructed by ATN Engineering. This company is building degassing machines for nearly thirty years. Experiencing the problems their customers have with the rising prices for the destruction of the recovered refrigerants they decided to create the next generation of degassing machines. Goal was to create a machine that was able to decompose the recovered refrigerant into CO2 and salt. Basically the same procedure as is used until now only all done in one machine without all the costly liquefying transport and decomposing in a giant plant. That plan succeeded.       

The handling carried out by the operator is the same as always. Either drilling a hole in the compressor with a special drilling-head or connecting to the cooling-system with a piercing device. Both can be operated with the ATN closed loop Refrigerator Degassing machine. Ones “inhaled” by the machine oil and refrigerant are separated and the refrigerant is sucked into the closed loop unit. From there it is conveyed into a catalyser that is on a temperature of 800°C. This temperature is reached with a device that itself never comes into contact with the refrigerant. Acid created at high temperature cannot destruct the unit. After the heating procedure the then created acid is pushed into a gas scrubber where it is transformed into salt and CO2. The consumption of energy is reduced by nearly 65%. The more flammable refrigerants enters the machine the lower the consumption of energy because the flammable refrigerant create energy in the form of heat. This heat can be used for the heating system of the customers building. In addition the oil that is gathered can be used for heating also. An extra device in the degassing machine enables the machine to incinerate the oil without extra pollution. A catalyser takes for the purification of the oil.

A solution for all this is the Closed Loop degassing machine constructed by ATN Engineering. This company is building degassing machines for nearly thirty years. Experiencing the problems their customers have with the rising prices for the destruction of the recovered refrigerants they decided to create the next generation of degassing machines. Goal was to create a machine that was able to decompose the recovered refrigerant into CO2 and salt. Basically the same procedure as is used until now only all done in one machine without all the costly liquefying transport and decomposing in a giant plant. That plan succeeded.       

The machine is able to stay within all the limits given by the different legislations or regulations such as for instance TU-Luft in Germany.

A further advance of the machine is that it can be connected with nearly every existing degassing machine. ATN or others.

It all comes down to a much simpler operating machine that generates energy in the form of heat.
The decomposing unit can be used for other purposes also. It could replace Active carbon filters depending on the material put throw. More info on request.