TABLE OF CONTENTS

and those with no intention to do so in the foreseeable
future – the latter especially showing a clear tendency
towards the “no movement” option as compared to the
“rather positive” one.
NH 3
: Stable climate with sunny prospects
The first noticeable result, when comparing the total
response set and the sub-set including only organisations
with no plans to use NR in the near future, is that
there are no marked differences between them. While
more individuals said the situation for ammonia in Europe
would be “highly negative” (10% for “No NR” subset
as compared to 3% for all respondents), evaluations
for all other options followed similar patterns. Average
responses tend towards the “no movement” to “rather
positive” option, irrespective of whether the company
uses natural refrigerants or not. This is another indication
of the largely saturated and well-established NH 3
market
for some applications, mainly industrial systems, already
pointed out for the refrigerant sales trends (see pages 32
to 33) .
HC: Cloudy forecast
Overall, HC represents the market with the least favourable
policy and business climate in Europe, as compared
to CO 2
and NH 3
. One-fifth (21%) rate the current situation
as “highly negative” or “rather negative”, as compared to
only 8% for CO 2
and 12% for NH 3
. At the other opposite,
only 4% say HCs meet “highly positive” conditions.
Even the total of those seeing any positive movements
(“rather positive” and “highly positive”) amounts to 38%
only, as compared with 63% for CO 2
and 48% for NH 3
. For
those not (yet) involved in HC products & services, no
single respondent selected the “highly positive” option.
A possible explanation for this rather pessimistic evaluation
can be found in the low total response rate of the
domestic refrigeration industry - a traditional stronghold
of HC application in Europe. Outside this industry the usage
of propane, isobutane and other HC refrigerants is
strongly restricted by European and national charge limits
impeding the widespread use of HCs in larger installations.
Results for HCs can therefore be interpreted as a
valid reflection of some of the prevailing barriers to the
uptake of natural refrigerants: training, safety and legislation
(see pages 98 to 99 & 102 to 103).
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