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Last changed: 29/03/11
Up to now the refrigerant used in mobile air conditioning systems has been the fluorinated greenhouse gas tetrafluoroethane (R134a). Directive 2006/40/EC relating to emissions from air-conditioning systems in motor vehicles prohibits the use of this substance in new passenger vehicle types and similar commercial vehicles as of 1 January 2011. After 1 January 2017, the ban will extend to the air conditioning units in all new vehicles in these classes. The automobile industry has considered carbon dioxide (CO2) and a fluorinated substance, 2,3,3,3‑Tetrafluoropropene (1234yf), as alternative refrigerants.
Measurements taken in a German Federal Ministry for Environment research project (BMU) prove the performance of CO2 as a refrigerant in mobile air conditioning systems. The CO2 air conditioning unit has very good cooling capacity. The unit is very energy-efficient: during a normal European summer the energy consumption of the CO2 air conditioning system is actually lower than a serially produced system with R134a. Tests done by the German automobile club ADAC corroborate these results. Refrigeration technology with CO2 is connected to another innovative advance, as the unit can also be used e.g. in electric vehicles as a heat pump, something which is either impossible or only very inefficient with other refrigerants.
VW Touran: The Federal Environment Agency’s climate-friendly car.
R744 is the name for CO2 as a refrigerant. ‘R‘ stands for ’refrigerant‘
The fluorinated greenhouse gas tetrafluoroethane (R134a) has been used as the refrigerant in mobile air conditioning systems up to present. In 2008 a volume of 2,700 tonnes of the GHG tetrafluoroethane (R134a) leaked from passenger cars in Germany alone. This amounts to 3.2 million tones of CO2 equivalents, or the annual amount of CO2 emitted by the exhaust of 1.4 million cars.
The use of CO2 as refrigerant in mobile air conditioning systems is a climate-friendly alternative to the refrigerant R134a used to date. CO2 has a high cooling capacity, is inflammable, creates no breakdown products, and is available at low cost worldwide.
Delegates at the UN climate talks in Bonn in early June had the opportunity to book a car which is unique in the world. Equipped with an innovative CO2 air conditioning system, it was made available for the car pool serving this high-level international meeting. R744 is the name of CO2 (carbon dioxide) when used as refrigerant, R stands for refrigerant. Emissions from the new CO2 mobile air conditioning (MAC) system are lower than those of a vehicle with a conventional MAC unit.
From 1 to 12 June 2009, 5000 delegates from 182 countries met for the Bonn Climate Change Talks 2009 to prepare the international climate change conference due to be held in December 2009 in Copenhagen for a post-Kyoto global climate protection agreement.
The VW Touran, a vehicle belonging to the fleet of the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA), was used for necessary transportation at the climate talks, supporting vehicles from the fleet of the German Environment Ministry (BMU).