The ease with which the refrigerants were removed from two redundant chillers on the sixth floor of the hospital block was made possible by the mobile A-Gas Rapid Recovery unit which could be moved up and down the building. All the equipment could be transported in a lift and this allowed the recovery team to complete the job in an impressive four hours.

A-Gas Rapid Recovery Engineer Richie Crane said that the work was undertaken under the social distancing restrictions in place. “There were strict rules and workers on site had to stay two metres apart from each other,” he explained.

“I was also wearing personal protective equipment supplied by A-Gas.” The maternity unit remained open during the work – part of a larger project to introduce a new air conditioning system to this key department of the hospital.

A-Gas Rapid Recovery has been on the UK market since 2017 and in that time has recovered refrigerants from hundreds of systems nationwide. This has helped customers switch from high GWP refrigerants to low GWP alternatives. 

At the maternity unit, the 180 kgs of refrigerant removed by A-Gas Rapid Recovery from the plant room was returned to A-Gas, allowing the refrigeration contractor more time to get on with other important aspects of the installation and in turn reducing the time needed to complete the entire job.

Refrigerant sent to A-Gas reprocessing centres becomes fully reclaimed product in line with the AHRI 700 standard. The reclaimed refrigerant is cleaned of contaminants and goes through a separation plant to produce a product that matches that of virgin refrigerant requirements.

A robust supply chain relying on multiple global sources, together with putting into action existing contingency plans, has allowed A-Gas to offer a near normal service to customers during the lockdown. The company has been pro-active with social distancing, split shift patterns have been introduced to reduce risk and staff have been encouraged to work from home where possible.