Frequently Asked Questions on Refrigerants:
HFOs
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:
Solstice refrigerants are Honeywell’s brand name on new HFO refrigerants that it produces. At the moment there are only two mainstream producers of HFO refrigerants in the world. The first being Honeywell and the second being the Chemours Company. HFOs are a new class of refrigerants that are aimed to have a significantly lower Global Warming Potential than their HFC counterparts. (HFC examples include R-134a, R-410A, and R-404A.)
HFO refrigerants are the products of the future and we will be seeing more and more on Honeywell’s Solstice product line. So far in 2015 there are six Solstice refrigerants that Honeywell has developed. You can visit their website by clicking here.
DR-55 refrigerant, or Opteon XL55, is a new HFO refrigerant designed by the Chemours Company.
This refrigerant is designed as a lower Global Warming Potential alternative to the popular HFC refrigerant R-410A. 410A systems can be easily converted to handle the new DR-55 and provides a nearly sixty percent reduction in Global Warming Potential. On top of the environmental savings it also provides a five percent efficiency boost to compared to 410A.
You can read more about it by visiting Chemour’s website (now Opteon)
Opteon refrigerants are DuPont’s, or Chemour’s, brand name of their new HFO refrigerants. HFO refrigerants are designed as an alternative to the high global warming potential HFC refrigerants used today. At this point in time, in 2015, there are only two main manufacturers of HFO refrigerants in the world. The first being the Chemours Company and the other being Honeywell. HFO’s are designed to be environmentally friendly and look to be the refrigerant of the future.
We will be seeing more and more on Chemour’s new Opteon product line. Chemours is currently developing new HFO refrigerants that will be suitable alternatives to the common R-410A and R-404A applications. You can visit their website by clicking here.