VATIS UPDATE Article

A team of scientists at Honeywell’s Buffalo Research Lab, the United States, is leading the effort toward the day when heat-trapping hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) will be as obsolete as ozone-depleting Freon in vehicle air conditioning units. The scientists developed a new refrigerant 1,300 times less potent to the environment than the HFCs in use since the 1990s. ‘Solstice yf’ is the trade name for the refrigerant, and it’s already in more than 10 million vehicles – some 120 models made by nearly three dozen car makers.

Some of the models with the new air conditioning systems include Cadillac’s XTS, several Toyota and Hyundai models, and most of the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and RAM brand vehicles. “We made the first gram, the first kilogram and the first ton,” said Rajiv R. Singh, at the Honeywell lab. The refrigerant will be a key to implementing last week’s global agreement, which calls for reducing HFCs use starting in 2019. HFCs are a fraction of what causes global warming. But scientists believe phasing them out may reduce global warming by half a degree.