Refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps (the RACHP sector) keep food fresh, buildings liveable and industry running. Most of this equipment still depends on fluorinated gases (F-gases) as working fluids, and many of these have global warming potentials hundreds or thousands of times that of CO₂. As cooling demand grows and societies electrify their heating, the emissions at stake grow with them.
Alternatives already exist, above all natural refrigerants such as CO₂, ammonia and hydrocarbons. What is missing is a robust, transparent and science-based way for industry and policymakers to compare mitigation strategies across regions, sectors and time horizons, and to see how those strategies interact with the wider decarbonisation of the energy system.
F-MAP responds to that gap by developing an open-source modelling tool for assessing F-gas mitigation pathways. The tool uses linear optimisation to identify either the cost-optimal route to a given emission target, or the emission-optimal route within a given cost ceiling, under constraints such as grid capacity, energy use and technology availability. It is built on EnergyModelsX, an established open framework for energy system modelling, which means it is documented, version-controlled and maintained beyond the project itself.
The modelling rests on new, improved input data. F-MAP will critically review existing emission databases and estimation methods, update leakage rates for equipment across its whole life cycle, and consider emissions linked to illegal trade in high-GWP gases. In parallel, the project is compiling a technology database covering both best-available and next-generation solutions, categorised by sector, climate, technology readiness level, cost and performance. The scope extends beyond the substances covered by the Montreal Protocol to include SF₆ in electrical switchgear and persistent degradation products such as TFA.
Four regional case studies, in Italy, Ghana, South Korea and North Macedonia, will demonstrate the tool across three continents, spanning very different climates, energy systems, market conditions and stages of economic development. Each case examines technology choices, costs, life-cycle emissions, grid impacts and policy options side by side.
Everything the project produces is designed to outlive it. The tool, its input datasets, scenario descriptions, case templates and results will be published openly, so that researchers can extend the model, technology providers can add their solutions, and national authorities can run their own assessments. Alongside this, F-MAP will produce policy briefs, training materials and stakeholder workshops aimed at supporting a transition away from fluorinated gases.
SINTEF's role in this project
SINTEF Energy Research coordinates F-MAP and leads the development of the modelling tool, which builds directly on the EnergyModelsX framework created at SINTEF. SINTEF also contributes decades of research on natural refrigerants and energy-efficient heating and cooling to the technology database, and brings specific expertise on SF₆ in electrical switchgear through its role hosting the Norwegian reporting scheme for gas-insulated substations. SINTEF Ocean joins as a partner, adding knowledge of refrigeration in transport, fisheries and the cold chain. Together with NTNU and the international partners, SINTEF will help design the scenarios and case studies, and lead the work of making the tool usable by researchers, industry and policymakers alike.
