Under the federal American Innovation in Manufacturing (AIM) Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been given the authority to phase down the consumption and production of high-GWP HFC refrigerants such as R-410A and R-404A in the U.S. The final details of the phasedown should be known by October, including the program that EPA must establish under the AIM Act that will maximize the reclamation of HFCs and increase opportunities for reclaiming HFC refrigerants.
This is an important piece of the HFC phasedown, as reclaimed refrigerant will be needed to service existing equipment in future years as production of virgin refrigerant begins to wind down. While refrigerant reclaimers are ready to meet this challenge, they are concerned about how EPA will allocate virgin HFC components, which are needed to return blended refrigerants back to the correct proportions required by the purity standard, AHRI 700.