Retrofits to return: Why it won’t be simple

Chemours and Honeywell have announced the development of a “retrofit approach for vehicles using the legacy R134a mobile air-conditioning refrigerant” that enables these systems to run R1234yf.

As Honeywell rightly points out, there are hundreds of millions of cars on the roads “potentially leaking R134a every day.”  

Replacing all that refrigerant, with its global warming potential (GWP) of 1430, with an almost zero-GWP alternative would undoubtedly be a triumph in the battle to get climate change under control.  

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. At the moment this announcement is little more than a proposal.