DuPont achieves significant progress on refrigerant for automotive air conditioning

The new refrigerant candidate, hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO)-1234yf, is the product of a joint development agreement between DuPont and Honeywell, which have been working closely with automotive manufacturers and their suppliers to conduct extensive safety, environmental and performance testing.

Based upon equivalent cooling and energy performance and global adoption of one refrigerant by the year 2017, the use of the new refrigerant in new cars has the potential to save more than 2,200 million liters (about 590 million gallons) of fuel annually - the equivalent of taking approximately 1.5 million cars off the road each year, compared to the in-kind product.

"This development is critical to reduce the total environmental footprint associated with car air conditioning systems, and DuPont is pleased to report that current data supports the safe use of HFO-1234yf in mobile air conditioning systems globally."

said Cynthia C. Green, Vice President and General Manager -- DuPont Fluoroproducts.

"In addition to safety, the new refrigerant offers a favorable environmental profile and compatibility with existing mobile air conditioning technology." she added.

HFO-1234yf offers several unique attributes that make it an ideal candidate to replace R-134a for automotive air conditioning.

It has a lower total environmental impact than other alternatives as measured by Life Cycle Climate Potential (LCCP) due to the combination of its extremely low global warming potential and high energy efficiency.

It performs well in all regions with different climates, making it more suitable as a single, global refrigerant solution.

The new refrigerant offers benefits for consumers and service technicians when compared to alternative carbon dioxide systems.

It also offers the most cost-effective transition away from HFC technology because it is highly compatible with current mobile air conditioning technology.

DuPont - one of the first companies to publicly establish environmental goals 18 years ago - has broadened its sustainability commitments beyond internal footprint reduction to include market-driven targets for both revenue and research and development investment.

The goals are tied directly to business growth, specifically to the development of safer and environmentally improved new products for key global markets.

DuPont has been operating in Egypt since 2000 with the opening of its office in Maadi, and the company today has nine active business units in Cairo.

DuPont's presence in the country and its growing local team demonstrate the company's solid involvement in the Egyptian market and its commitment to bringing Egypt up-to-date with the world's most innovative science developments.