SAE International technical group’s confidence in HFO 1234yf grows

Feb 12, 2013: An SAE International Cooperative Research Program reported progress in expanding its evaluation of HFO-1234yf, stating that their “high level of confidence that R1234yf can be used safely in automotive applications continues to grow.”

An earlier Cooperative Research Program was completed in 2009 and concluded that HFO-1234yf is a safe and acceptable alternative refrigerant for mobile air conditioning systems that can be used to meet new environmental and consumer needs. The previous evaluation has now been expanded, and SAE International said that “the findings of the original CRP1234 remain well founded.”

The evaluations done by the automotive industry under the SAE program have involved extensive testing. According to SAE, the Cooperative Research Program is “using universally accepted engineering methods, including analysis of recent OEM testing from actual vehicle crash data, on-vehicle simulations, laboratory simulations, bench tests and over 100 engine compartment refrigerant releases. Based on this testing, the CRP has found that the refrigerant is highly unlikely to ignite and that ignition requires extremely idealized conditions.”

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