Eurammon Publishes Free Natural Refrigerant Selection Guide Built on EU Standards
The guide covers six natural refrigerant groups across a span of about minus 130 to 200 degrees C and capacities from under 1 kW to more than 20 MW. Its standards table lists EN 378, ISO 817 and three parts of IEC 60335, and its regulatory section is entirely EU.
Eurammon, the Koenigstein, Germany, association that promotes natural refrigerants, published a selection guide on Oct. 27 that sorts ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, water, air and helium by the job each one does. "Choosing the Best Natural Refrigerant for Your Application" is a first edition dated October 2026, free to download from the association's site and free to reproduce unaltered for non-commercial use with credit. Its pages are numbered to 38. Eurammon says the six groups together span roughly minus 130 to 200 C with no gaps, and capacities from less than 1 kW for plug-in equipment to more than 20 MW for industrial plants.
Four Steps to a Shortlist
Step one sets the temperature requirement, and the guide's answers are water, ammonia and CO2 above 100 C; propane, ammonia, CO2 and isobutane from 0 to 100 C; ammonia, CO2 and propane from minus 40 to 0 C; and ammonia, a CO2 cascade, air, ethane or ethylene below minus 40 C. Step two sizes the load, sending small systems to propane, isobutane and CO2, medium systems to propane, CO2 and ammonia, and large systems to ammonia or an ammonia and CO2 cascade. Step three chooses between direct expansion, an indirect secondary loop and a cascade. Step four weighs local conditions: availability of compressors and components, local refrigerant supply, the competence of local technicians and designers, and efficiency at the temperature lift in question.
Decision Trees by Application
Three trees then run left to right, for cold rooms, for process cooling with a secondary fluid, and for heat pumps up to process steam at 160 C. Chilled rooms above 20 kW get propane condensing units numbered up, a low-charge ammonia package or a CO2 unit feeding multiple evaporators. Freezer rooms in the 20 to 200 kW range add a central transcritical CO2 low-temperature unit, optionally with an ejector or heat recovery. Each branch carries its ISO 817 safety class, which puts ammonia at B2L, places CO2, water, air and helium at A1, and marks the hydrocarbons A3. Eurammon attaches a case study where it has one, including S-Market in Finland, Super Best, the Tingvalla Ice Stadium, the ABN Amro data center and a Roche biotechnology plant. An empty case-study field, the guide says, "means no case study has yet been published for that branch, not that the technology is unproven."
- EN 378, the European safety and environmental standard for refrigerating systems, which the guide notes is under revision
- ISO 817 for refrigerant designation and safety classification
- IEC 60335-2-24 for domestic refrigerating appliances, 60335-2-40 for air conditioners and heat pumps, and 60335-2-89 for commercial refrigerating appliances
- Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU, the ATEX directives 1999/92/EC and 2014/34/EU, and the OSH framework directive 89/391/EEC
- EU F-Gas Regulation 2024/573, which bars new chillers above 12 kW using f-gases at GWP 750 or higher from 2027, and new stationary refrigeration equipment at GWP 150 or higher from 2030
- The Kigali Amendment schedule, under which developed countries reach an 85 percent cut by 2036
The Guide Says Where It Applies
On the regulatory page the guide states its own reach: "The F-Gas Regulation and the directives and standards below apply in the EU. Comparable national rules exist in other markets, and many follow the EU model." Everything in its standards and regulation tables is European, EU-wide or international. IIAR appears once, in the further-reading table, credited for ammonia refrigeration standards, the Natural Refrigeration Review journal and training material. The guide names charge limits four times as a criterion that decides between technically feasible options and prints no figures for any of them, sending readers to the current editions of the standards instead.
Twelve named experts contributed, from Alfa Laval, Johnson Controls, Re-phridge, KRAHN Specialty Fluids, Refolution Industriekaelte, A/gent Consultancy, Evapco Europe, Secon, GEA Refrigeration Germany and Triple Aqua Licensing. The eurammon Secretariat edited it under Britta Patzold.
Why This Matters to Contractors
Eurammon renewed a memorandum of understanding with IIAR at the 2025 IIAR Natural Refrigeration Conference in Phoenix, 19 months before this guide appeared, and IIAR still reaches it only as a line in the reading list. The engineering crosses the Atlantic intact, since temperature bands, capacity bands and safety classes do not change by jurisdiction. The compliance column does not travel with it, and the guide concedes as much in its disclaimer, which says its figures do not cover national requirements and that its safety classifications and charge limits are stated as at September 2026.
Sources
- eurammon e.V., "Choosing the Best Natural Refrigerant for Your Application. A eurammon Guide for the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Sector," first edition, October 2026. framerusercontent.com (PDF)
- eurammon e.V., "New eurammon guide: Choosing the Best Natural Refrigerant for Your Application," Oct. 27, 2026. eurammon.com
- eurammon e.V., "eurammon and IIAR renew Memorandum of Understanding," March 2025. eurammon.com
- Refindustry, "Eurammon publishes guide to selecting natural refrigerants for RACHP systems," Nov. 9, 2026. refindustry.com