Recovered, recycled, reclaimed: what is the difference?

In the trade the three words are used interchangeably. In the F-gas Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/573, they are three separate terms, each with its own definition in Article 3. The difference decides what you may do with a cylinder.

What is recovered refrigerant?

Recovery is the collection and storage of F-gases from containers, products and equipment, during maintenance or servicing or before the equipment is disposed of. It is the first step and is carried out by a certified technician.

Recovered refrigerant may not simply go back into a system. Article 8(6) only allows recovered gas to be used for filling or refilling once it has been recycled or reclaimed. Until it is analysed, nobody knows exactly what is in the cylinder: there may be moisture, oil, air or another refrigerant.

What is recycled refrigerant?

Recycling is the reuse of recovered refrigerant after a basic cleaning process, such as filtering and drying. The gas is not brought up to the quality of new product.

For refrigerants covered by a servicing ban, there is a hard limit (Article 13). Recycled refrigerant must come from the same kind of equipment and may only be used by the company that recovered it, or by the company for which the recovery was carried out. For those gases, recycled refrigerant is not freely tradeable.

What is reclaimed refrigerant?

Reclamation is the reprocessing of recovered refrigerant to the equivalent performance of a virgin substance, taking into account its intended use. It takes place in authorised reclamation facilities that have the right equipment and procedures and can assess and attest to the required quality.

This is the version that can go back on the general market as a substitute for new gas. A cylinder of reclaimed refrigerant carries a label stating that the gas has been reclaimed, with the batch number and the name and address of the reclamation facility in the EU (Article 12(7)). Only with that label does it fall under the exemptions from the servicing bans.

Reclaimed and recycled refrigerant recovered in the EU does not count against the HFC quota. That makes it more valuable as the quota shrinks.

Can anyone buy reclaimed refrigerant?

No. Refrigerant is not a consumer product. F-gases for the installation, servicing or repair of equipment may only be bought by certified individuals or by companies employing certified staff, and sellers may only supply them (Article 11(6)). Suppliers must also record who they sell to, including the buyer's certificate number. That applies to reclaimed gas too. Quota-exempt does not mean rules-exempt.

Collecting, transporting and delivering F-gases is allowed for companies that do not carry out installation work themselves and are not certified for it. The same article says so explicitly.

Why does the difference matter for price?

Each step adds value and each step adds paperwork. A cylinder of recovered refrigerant with no history is hard to price and hard to place. The same gas with a known origin, an analysis and a complete paper trail is feedstock a processor can plan around. What helps when pricing a cylinder:

• •the refrigerant type, and whether it is clean or mixed with another refrigerant;
• •the equipment it came from;
• •the net weight, excluding the cylinder;
• •an analysis by the processor.

Much of the value in recovered refrigerant is created by documentation, long before anyone opens a valve at the plant.