Natural Refrigerants > Co2

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The first major phase change for refrigerants has not even been completed yet and already many are urging yet another. The long, hard, costly journey away from ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which began in the early 90s, continues, with a 2010 step down in production and eventual phase out of hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-22 refrigerant in new HVAC/R applications.

(HCFC)-22 refrigerant in new HVAC/R applications.
But soon after hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) became the established alternative, many in Europe began urging yet another costly, arduous trek – away from HFCs and toward “natural refrigerants.” The igniter behind all the commotion is the hot topic of the day – global warming.

HFC refrigerants have no chlorine on the molecule, which gives them a zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) versus chlorine-containing refrigerants like CFC-12 (ODP=1) or HCFC-22 (ODP=0.05). But the new environmental concern in the air, global warming, casts HFCs in a less favorable light due to their relatively high global warming potential (GWP) values.
While the change from CFCs to HFCs drastically reduced refrigerant-related contribution to global warming (for example, one kg of CFC-12 has the same global warming contribution as 8500 kg of CO2 while one kg of HFC-134a is equivalent to 1400 kg of CO2), the intensifying focus on global warming has created pressure to find alternatives with even lower GWPs including use of natural refrigerants like CO2, hydrocarbons and ammonia which have no ODP and very low GWP.