The European f-Gas Directive phases out HFC-134a from Mobile Air
Conditioning systems (MACs) in new vehicles by 2017. In the US
pending California and USEPA regulations have incentives to phase
out HFC-134a earlier than 2017. As a result industry is striving to
transform all global markets to a single new refrigerant in order
to simplify global marketing. One of the global tools to help
evaluate alternatives during this transition is the global LCCP
(Life Cycle Climate Performance) and the development of the
GREENMAC- LCCP© model. This model has become the global standard to
measure the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) greenhouse emissions of any
proposed alternative refrigerant for MACs starting from bench test
results and supporting the car manufacturer choice of the best
suitable alternative refrigerant from an environmental
perspective.
The increasing interest for indirect emissions optimization is
affecting not only the new refrigerant selection and also the
choice of MACs control in the vehicle. To evaluate system controls,
a prototype vehicle equipped with a new MACs, featuring an
increased efficiency, must be tested and the results evaluated.
This can be done more effectively in a vehicle-level test.
Fiat Group Automobiles [FGA] has developed a life cycle model
similar to GREEN-MAC-LCCP© over the last five years. This model
uses vehicle tests of fuel consumed by the MACs as the major input
for indirect impact. The LCCP results are under continuous review
and one of the areas of active debate is how the GREEN-MAC-LCCP©
estimated Indirect CO₂-eq. emissions compare with vehicle-based
test results. In this paper we provide a detailed analysis and
comparison of the Indirect LCCP CO₂-eq emissions obtained by
running the GREEN-MAC-LCCP© model with bench test input data and
those obtained by running the FGA tool implemented with vehicle
test results.