environmental future of SF6

[alehman]

One U.S. manufacturer of switchgear has told me that they believe SF6 will become the next "PCB" of the electrical industry. Coincidentally this manufacturer does not use SF6 in their equipment.

The EPA web site discusses a voluntary compliance program for handling SF6 and SF6 byproducts.

http://www.epa.gov/highgwp1/sf6/

Does anyone have an inside track to the regulatory thinking on SF6? Are we heading for tighter controls, or possible phase-out?

 

[busbar]

It’s probably a safe bet that like CFC and HCFC refrigerants, the price will greatly increase, and spur sales volume of recovery/handling ‘gas carts’.

 

[jbartos]

Comment: GIS technologies have significant advantages over oil cooled or air cooled technologies. There will probably be some SF6 equivalent friendlier to environment. However, the current SF6 technology is fairly advanced and relatively safe. SF6 technology is much less dangerous than oil cooling technologies.