Alternative refrigerants

A Cooperative Research Program has been formed with the assistance of SAE to compare the environmental impact and efficiency of standard HFC-134a, CO₂, secondary-loop hydrocarbon, and enhanced HFC-134a systems in cooling mode.

Change the mobile air-conditioning refrigerant? Didn't we just change from R12 to HFC-134a at a cost of billions of dollars and with great difficulty? Why would anyone want to go through an expensive struggle again, so soon? These are good questions, but a hard look is being taken at two alternatives.

The driving force is environmental regulation, which was also the driving influence in the R12 to HFC-134a changeover of 1991-95. Then the issue was the thinning ozone layer, attributed to chlorine from chlorinated fluorocarbons (CFC), primarily R12. At the time, global warming fears were being expressed, and HFC-134a looked like a great choice to deal with that issue. It has 84% lower global warming potential than R12, according to the 1994 report of the Refrigeration, A/C and Heat Pumps Technical Options Committee, United National Environmental Programme.