Briefs: MAC: what refrigerant will replace HFC-134a?

Following the adoption of the new European Directive 2006/40 on emissions from mobile air-conditioning systems - which bans F-gases with a GWP higher than 150 (such as HFC-134a) as of 2011 for new models of cars and similar Californian legislation, the industry is being pushed to develop new alternative refrigerants, in parallel to intense R&D led on CO2. After Honeywell which gave further information on its new "H-fluid" (see Newsletter No. 28), DuPont Refrigerants recently unveiled the first demonstration of its new DP-1 refrigerant. DP-1 is a 2-component, non-flammable blend; the major component is a new non-flammable, fluorine-based compound ; the minor component is a commercially available refrigerant. According to DuPont, DP-1 offers properties and performance similar to that of R-134a while featuring 0 ODP and a GWP estimated at 40. INEOS Fluor - which was the first company in the world to commercially offer HFC-134a in 1990 - also announced it "has developed and is currently testing a new proprietary refrigerant designed to meet the long-term needs of automotive manufacturers in Europe".