F-Gas Use Case: Temporary Experiments (< 6 months)

Recommendations for conception and design

1. Target zero-emission objective
   Hermetic, air-tight design, including distribution network and pipes
2. Ensure maximum F-Gas recovery feasibility during the whole life cycle of the Equipment (i.e. Operation Maintenance, decommissioning, etc.)
3. Favour natural refrigerants or gasless technologies

In case of technical or safety issues, consider F-Gases with low GWP (< 700, GWP list: EDMS # 3120836 LINK)

Warning: PFAS alternatives will be subject to restriction/phase-out (note: most HFOs F-Gases are also PFAS).

Please contact the F-Gas management team for advice.

Reminder: Personnel Handling F-Gases shall:

• complete the dedicated mandatory CERN e-learning course;
• receive CERN practical training if they are Handling research specific Equipment;
• hold the certifications required by applicable regulations in the Host Sates, if any.

Mandatory Experiment declaration

Initial declaration

It is compulsory to provide information about your experiment through the Temporary experiment declaration form as early as possible and at the latest three months before the start of the experiment.

The following information is required:

• Name of the experiment, start date, duration, location, the name and email address of the person responsible.
• Short description of the experiment.
• F-Gases estimated consumption throughout the whole duration of the experiment:
  • type of the gas/fluid,
  • estimated consumption in kg,
  • percentage if it is in a mixture, and the type and percentage of the other fluids present in the mixture.
• For the Equipment (e.g. detector), a study/report on the practical solutions to recover F-Gases for reuse and/or destruction during Equipment operation, maintenance and dismantling.

Once the form has completed and submitted, an ID for the experiment will be sent to the creator. This ID will be necessary to declare the real consumption at the end of the experiment.

Real consumption declaration

At the end of the experiment, the actual F-Gas consumption shall be communicated through the dedicated form: Actual F-Gas consumption

Please indicate the experiment ID that was provided by email after completing the initial form to link the real consumption to the experiment information.

In case of questions, please contact: f-gas-management@cern.ch

It is imperative to ensure that after the experiment run, you add in the “Remarks” section any information to prevent reoccurrence in future similar setup.

Storage of F-Gas Bottles

No storage of bottles is allowed for temporary experiments: only the quantity of gas required for the experiment declared duration shall be present on the experiment site.

Operation & Maintenance

Equipment owners are responsible for the connections made between the bottle/container and the Equipment.

The following instructions shall be followed:

Before operation	Instructions
F-Gas consumption and emission minimisation	Contact the F-Gas Management team (f-gas-management@cern.ch) to determine whether a recirculation and/or recovery system is available and adaptable to your experiment. Switch to lower or 0 GWP gas when F-Gas is not needed.
F-Gas leak minimisation	Verify the leak-tightness of the entire experimental setup e.g.: pre-fill the Equipment before the run and check the presence of leaks with a F-Gas leak detector.

During operation	Instructions
Gas mixture flow time	Reduce the F-Gas flow time to the shortest possible.
Lowering gas flow	If the data acquisition for physics remains unchanged, consider lowering the F-Gas flow input.

Leak detection & repair

It is compulsory to check the installation for leaks before operation. Leak detectors (sniffers) are available at CERN for temporary experiments on a first-come, first-served basis. Please consult the F-Gas management team (f-gas-management@cern.ch).

In case of leaks, please follow the required action(s) for each specific case:

Procedure for F-Gas incidental/accidental release

The following steps must be followed when setting up the experiment, in order to minimise the risk of accidental leakage of F-Gases:

• Step 1: record all the available means/methods to stop the gas supply to the Equipment or/and to minimise the gas leak, as soon as technically and safely possible.
• Step 2: identify all existing means/methods to assess the total F-Gas quantity released during potential incidents/accidents.
• In case of incident:
  Step 3: the mandatory Incident Declaration form shall be filled within 24 hours of the incident/accident occurrence, by the responsible person or a witness.
  The following information is required:
  • A brief, precise description of the incident/accident
  • The actions carried out to manage the incident/accident, including those to minimise F-Gas loss
  • The type and quantity (kg) of F-Gas or gas mixture emitted and how it was assessed
  • Any other relevant information to help avoid recurrence