6 - The environment

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the environmental research that underpins the global pressure on the air-conditioning (A/C) industry to reduce ozone depletion and global warming. CFCs—chemically stable substances that are superior for heat resistance and non-combustibility—have the characteristics of being colorless and odorless without being flammable, corrosive, or toxic. For these reasons, they came to be used for a wide range of purposes such as refrigerants for air-conditioning and refrigeration systems, aerosol spray agents, cleaning agents for electronic systems, fire extinguisher material, foam agents, and raw material for synthetic resins. CFCs, being extremely stable, do not release chlorine until they reach the stratosphere. CFCs released into the atmosphere are said to be destroying or damaging the ozone layer and CFC-12 used as a refrigerant in car air-conditioning system units until now is one of the substances that could cause depletion of the ozone layer. The most important characteristic of an alternative refrigerant is that the ozone depletion potential is zero, and that it can be used safely in its required environment; hence, an air-conditioning system that uses a different substance as a refrigerant type has been developed, and since this alternative refrigerant has characteristics that are different from the previous refrigerants, the conventional air-conditioning system has been modified to accept it.