Product announcements dominated day two of ARBS 2018 with A-Gas Australia launching the Sydney branch of its new refrigerant recovery service which is being rolled out nationally.
A-Gas is aiming for a national presence by 2019.The innovative rapid recovery services support Australia's transition to low GWP fluids under the HFC phasedown which officially began on January 1 this year.
The phasedown represents a lot of system upgrades for Australian customers keen to recover refrigerant as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
In 2016 the Montreal Protocol was updated to include the HFC phasedown under the Kigali Amendment. That very same year A-Gas acquired US-company Rapid Recovery which provides a full suite of on-site recovery and cylinder services through its 40 branch network across the United States.
Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Rapid Recovery began in 2002. The expertise that Rapid Recovery developed during this time has now been transferred to A-Gas which is extending this offering to the Australian market providing an end-to-end supply and reclamation service to its customers.
Back in 2002 customers relied on handheld pumps to recover gas from its systems whenever repairs, upgrades or retrofits were undertaken.
Since then Rapid Recovery has designed compact, high powered pumps that are 10 times faster than normal removal procedures. The pumps were placed on a fleet of vehicles allowing the company to go on-site to remove gas for customers.
Today, Rapid Recovery in the US has 110 vehicles.
A-Gas Australia is utilising much larger machines weighing 275kg which have been fitted to its own trucks along with a 75 metre hose and cylinders. A more portable unit weighing 40kg is also available and is suitable for all equipment.
A-Gas general manager, Graeme Dewerson, said the plan is to have a fleet of vehicles working 24x7 around Australia.
Dewerson said the Melbourne service launched in April, a month before the Sydney launch at ARBS 2018.
“The Brisbane launch will take place in June with Perth and Adelaide set to follow in September,” he said.
“We want each site in each capital city to be self-sufficient with its own trucks and fully trained technicians.”
The Rapid Recovery service isn't just about the El Machino Pumps, it requires trained technicians which is why A-Gas sent its staff to the US to complete a two-week course prior to officially launching the service.
“We did this to ensure we had qualified technicians ready to hit the ground running,” Dewerson said.
“Customers want refrigerant recovered quickly so there is less chance of refrigerated goods being spoiled and they want it done efficiently to save time and money.
“Recovering gas from systems is a job that normally takes a long time but we can complete a six hour job in one hour.
“Customers don't have to pull kit down because we do everything which means we are giving contracting companies the ability to do more jobs in a single day.
“We have our own cylinders and with a 75 metre hose there is less manual handling and reduced refrigerant loss as well.”
Dewerson said the company's aim is to carry out 500 separate recovery jobs by the end of 2018.
He said in the first two years, A-Gas plans to complete its national rollout.
“To support this A-Gas is bringing a technician from the US to work here,” Dewerson said.
“Then in 2019 we will rollout the service in New Zealand and regional Australia.”
A-Gas will begin its regional coverage with Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Canberra.
“Our five year goal is to have 30 operational trucks across Australia and New Zealand,” Dewerson said.
A-Gas launched its Rapid Recovery business in the UK last year. In recent years A-Gas has invested heavily in the reclamation and recovery side of its operations with a number of significant acquisitions across the globe.
A-Gas International completed its acquisition of US-based Rapid Recovery in June 2016. The transaction marked the fourth acqusition for A-Gas in the US and its sixth worldwide since 2012.
More recently A-Gas acquired BTC, a Dutch reclamation service. The BTC purchase highlights the company's commitment to providing industry with the capacity and infrastructure required to support the HFC phasedown.
Demand for these services is growing as refrigerant mixtures become more complicated and more mixed gases enter the market.