A-Gas, a global life cycle refrigerant management company, broke ground on another set of separation towers at its Rhome, Texas, plant. This expansion project is part of A-Gas’ continued investment in technology, deepening its role in the sustainability sector. These new separation towers will increase A-Gas’ output by 100% over the next 18 months to supply the U.S. with reclaimed refrigerant gases, increasing the number of such gases in the market.

Late last year, A-Gas completed the construction of its latest refrigerant separation towers at the plant located outside of Dallas/Fort Worth. Recently, the separation towers were brought online, which multiplied the separation capacity at the Texas plant, increasing capacity by 100% since the first set of separation towers were brought online in 2021 and 200% since A-Gas began investing in this technology.

Year-over-year, A-Gas has nearly doubled its reclaimed refrigerant output. Paired with the AHRI-certified laboratory at the Rhome plant, millions of additional pounds of reclaimed refrigerant, including the most complicated mixes, can be safely returned to the marketplace at AHRI-700 specifications.

Expanding the recovery and reclaim of refrigerant gases is essential for implementing the production and importation phasedown of HFCs under the AIM Act, which ensures U.S. compliance with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

“Between the phasedown of virgin HFCs in the U.S., local governments requiring the use of certified reclaimed refrigerant, and our customers’ desire to reduce their own environmental impact, the demand for high-quality reclaimed gas is only growing,” noted Mike Armstrong, president of A-Gas Americas. “We’re proud to meet the needs of customers, industry stakeholders, environmental stewards, and the government through our innovative technology. Together, we can continue to utilize existing resources to provide more circular economy solutions.”

A-Gas’ newest separators will be operational in early 2024. With these new separators, A-Gas will have quadrupled the separation capacity at the current site since 2017.

“At the end of the day, every pound of refrigerant that is reclaimed is a pound of refrigerant that was recovered instead of harming the environment with illegal venting,” said Taylor Ferranti, commercial vice president of refrigerant management at A-Gas. “Safe gas recovery through on-site recovery services, like A-Gas Rapid Recovery®, and cylinder exchange programs, like Rapid Exchange® and Refri-Claim, make reclaiming refrigerant possible. We’re thrilled to give industry stakeholders who are responsibly recovering refrigerant a solution to bring their used gas back to virgin-grade product specifications for future re-use. We look forward to giving more people and organizations the opportunity to participate in the circular economy.”