A consultation meeting was held at the office of the Ozone Center under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan on the future and present for the Turkmen refrigeration sector, measures that could help Turkmenistan to steadily pass the period of the withdrawal of freons from circulation, which contribute to the enhancement of the greenhouse effect, reports the newspaper “Neutral Turkmenistan”.

Representatives of the Ministries of Education, Health and Medical Industry, Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, employees of the oil and gas industry, State Corporation “Turkmenhimiya”, UIET and employees of law enforcement agencies attended the event.

In accordance with the latest amendments to the protocol of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 129 countries, including Turkmenistan, have agreed to phase out 18 hydrofluorocarbons contained in cooling mixtures around the world.

According to Myahri Saparova, an employee of the Ozone Center, Turkmenistan is developing a project transition plan for the use of new refrigerants for six years ahead.

In Turkmenistan, hydrofluorocarbons subject to replacement, on which long-term equipment operates, will be gradually phased out.

At the meeting, it was also emphasized that the usual household freons will disappear along with the obsolescence of refrigeration equipment, which will eventually be replaced by new brands of equipment operating on other freons – “neutral” to ozone and climate.

In particular, such a process for Turkmenistan extends until 2047.

The report notes that Turkmenistan has signed the entire package of ozone agreements adopted by the international community and, simultaneously with reducing the use of controlled mixtures, is considering retraining personnel.

Thus, until 2025, the Ozone Center plans to create a training platform on the basis of the Yagshygeldi Kakayev International University of Oil and Gas.

There are also plans to create a national refrigeration association, where its members will be provided with legal and advisory assistance.

“In view of the accumulation of stocks of spent freons in the country, it would be logical to create a point for their collection, recycling and subsequent return to circulation, since recycling, namely incineration, is a very time-consuming and costly job”, the message emphasizes.

Since 2015, Turkmenistan has had a legal ban on the supply of obsolete equipment containing banned R-22. Previously, the use of this component was ubiquitous, but now it is retained only on the basis of quota imports. The quota for R-22 for Turkmenistan is 80 tons, licenses for its supply are issued by the State Corporation “Turkmenhimiya”.

It is also worth noting that the list of refrigerants used in Turkmenistan is many dozens of items, the specialists of the Ozone Center classified them according to toxicity, properties, composition, compiled a list of prohibited ODS mixtures for internal use, which is prescribed in the legislation and approved at the international level. They also prepared a technical guide for beginners, as well as a Russian-Turkmen dictionary of special terms.