Replacement of Refrigerant Gas Used in Cars

Refrigerant Replacement is crucial to the development of China automobile industry

Since the 1990s, my country's automotive air-conditioning industry has been committed to protecting the ozone layer and mitigating global climate warming, and is an important participant and contributor to my country's compliance with the Mongolian Convention. Currently, most of the refrigerants used in passenger car air conditioners in my country are the third-generation refrigerant HFC-134a, with a GWP (global warming potential) of 1430, which has a strong greenhouse effect. According to statistics, from 2020 to 2022, an average of 38,000 tons of HFCs refrigerants were used in my country's automobile manufacturing and maintenance processes each year. The potential emissions of HFCs refrigerants used in the automobile industry in a year are about 55 million tons of CO₂ equivalent.

my country's new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly, with production and sales ranking first in the world for eight consecutive years, and new breakthroughs have been made in core technologies such as power batteries, intelligent driving, and chassis architecture. However, at present, most new energy vehicles in my country still use HFC-134a refrigerant for fuel vehicles. New energy vehicles lack engine waste heat during operation. HFC-134a refrigerant has low low-temperature heating efficiency and needs to be used in conjunction with a PTC (electric heater).

In summary, due to environmental protection and energy saving considerations, HFC-134a refrigerant can no longer meet the needs of the rapid development of new energy vehicles in my country. Therefore, from the perspective of the development of the automobile industry, carrying out refrigerant replacement work will provide an opportunity for my country's automobile industry, especially new energy vehicles, to overtake in a corner, and is of great significance to further consolidating my country's international leading position in new energy vehicles.

The diversified development situation of new automobile air-conditioning refrigerants has initially taken shape

In the dual context of "dual carbon" and international compliance, the selection of fourth-generation refrigerants needs to consider two major aspects: First, relevant national standards and regulations, fulfilling obligations under international conventions such as the "Kigali Amendment" and complying with "double carbon" The second is the evolution of the thermal management characteristics of new energy vehicles and the impact of user needs. This can be subdivided into the refrigerant's own GWP, life cycle climate performance (LCCP), intellectual property, flammability, refrigeration/thermal performance, energy consumption level, convenience of later maintenance, air conditioning system cost, refrigerant production cost, Supply chain costs and other specific indicators.

At present, there are two main categories of fourth-generation refrigerants under research in China. One is natural refrigerants represented by R744 and R290, and the other is synthetic refrigerants such as R474A, R479A, R457C, R457D and DL-series. refrigerant. However, no single refrigerant can meet all substitution conditions, and the industry is faced with a variety of technology choices.