What are HFO Refrigerants?

HFO refrigerants, or HydroFluroOolefins, are a new class of refrigerants designed as an alternative to the commonly used HydroFluroCarbon refrigerants that are used today. Example HFC refrigerants are the popular R-134a, R-410A, and R-404A. It was found that HFC refrigerants had a high Global Warming Potential, or GWP. This high GWP contributed towards Global Warming and the push was on to find an alternative to the high GWP HFC refrigerants. It seems that HFO refrigerants are that new alternative.

The first HFO was designed as a partnership between Honeywell and The Chemours Company. (Formerly DuPont.) HFO-1234YF was created within this partnership and was marketed as a viable replacement for the automotive R-134a refrigerant. 1234YF has a GWP of 4 whereas the old R-134a had a GWP of 1,320. This was quite the change and many companies were excited to adopt the HFO. The new 1234YF is the standard refrigerant used across the European Union and now, in 2015, is seeing more widespread use across the United States.

On top of the 1234YF HFO there are numerous other HFO refrigerants that are in development under Honeywell’s Solstice and Chemour’s Opteon brand name. With every year that passes a new type of HFO alternative refrigerant is created and tested.

You can read more about these by visiting the below website:


Category: HFOs

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