February 4, 2010 wa

Today’s R-134a is a greenhouse gas that is targeted for phase out in
Europe starting next year. As part of the US Clean Air Act that resulted
in the phase-out of CFC-12 and controlled it’s use to only certified
service personnel its replacement R-134a use was not controlled. 

The uncontrolled sale of R-134a in the US resulted in the atmospheric
loading of this high global warming chemical providing international
reason to eliminate its future use. 

Productions of new vehicles using HFC-134a systems were first introduced
in MY1992 and full production MY1995. The US Clean Air Act required that
refrigerant Recovery Recycle service equipment was mandatory. These new
HFC-134a systems incorporated new technologies to reduce refrigerant
emissions therefore required minimal refrigerant for servicing the fleet
in that time period. 

In the October 12, 2001 Executive Summary of Technologies to Reduce
Emissions of Non-CO2Greenhouse Gases and Black Carbon National Climate
Change Technology Initiative (NCCTI), data from the EPA Inventory of
U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1999 and 2000 indicated high
emission levels for HFC-134a. In 1998 an unexplained HFC-134a emissions,
accountable to MAC service industry, of an additional 14,000 equivalent
metric tonnes of carbon dioxide or 31 million pounds of HFC-134a was
reported.

Since the sale of CFC-12 was restricted to service professionals,
HFC-134a was used to service the leaking MAC CFC-12 fleet estimated by
R.L. Polk to be 159.4 million in 1992 and 13.7 million in 1998,
therefore impacting the high R-134a atmospheric loading. 

 

