I'm not sure why, patents and strong-arming royalties out of car companies and end buyers everywhere just because you can aside, 1234yf is used instead of plain, old propane. R290 gets the same job done and doesn't cost an arm and a leg to use...
That said, R290 has been around forever and there are huge debates as to whether or not it actually increases the risk of fire in case of an accident. There are many who will retrofit their AC compressors to use R290 instead of the now significantly more-expensive R12 or its incompatible and inferior-cooling R134a alternative.
The argument goes that R134a is warmer enough that it takes less R290 to do the trick. It's a closed, separate system, and the gas itself is largely distributed and not pooled (like a gas tank would be) and there isn't enough of it to actually sustain a fire. It's also claimed that it's simply not as easy to combust as it's made out to be, but I'm not a chemist and I don't know.
The great thing about eliminating HFCs is that their atmospheric lifetime is fairly short, within 10-20 years their effect will be gone giving us some breathing room in avoiding >2°C this century. That is unlike CO2 where every ton we emit now affects the atmosphere for thousands of years to come.
We are not talking about ozone-depleting gases, but short term global warming causing gases.
CFCs were successful because they are incredibly safe. HFCs are about as safe as CFCs. Now, if every car started to carry something as dangerous as a propane tank, we could expect a lot of people to die (some cars currently do carry propane tanks, and they are less safe because of it).
Anyway, this thing is certainly not as dangerous as propane, or we'd have reliable data by now. The question is, how well tested is it (are there unbiased 3rd party tests?), and how dangerous are we willing to go? (And that F-O link is usually nasty.)
Yes yes, propane is so dangerous in cars. There are about 3mil LPG cars in Poland right now. I dont remember a SINGLE case of a TV report about LPG car blowing up (= non news). I had to google to find out how often that happens and what are the ramifications.
This is new though: "While cars, obviously, contain other flammable materials, he was specifically worried that at high temperatures 1234yf emitted hydrogen fluoride, which is dangerous if inhaled or touched." Nasty stuff.
and your fridge probably uses less than the 4 ozs (~114 grams) that this commercial one does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc08R8Z7oBs&feature=youtu.be...
It's pretty much a drop in replacement for R134a and according to unnamed rock crawlers (jeep folks) it just may work better
The right mix if isobutane and propane gives the perfect glide and gives more cooling effect for less power input than any of the the ridiculously expensive products out there at about 3cents AU a fill for a car. The only mod you need is to keep the fan in the condenser running full time.
The catch is that the refrigerants are being used in cars (which don't sit in a kitchen all day). When 1234yf lights, the byproducts are extremely toxic. You may survive a vehicle collision, be pinned in the vehicle, and then get killed by the fumes.
That said, R290 has been around forever and there are huge debates as to whether or not it actually increases the risk of fire in case of an accident. There are many who will retrofit their AC compressors to use R290 instead of the now significantly more-expensive R12 or its incompatible and inferior-cooling R134a alternative.
The argument goes that R134a is warmer enough that it takes less R290 to do the trick. It's a closed, separate system, and the gas itself is largely distributed and not pooled (like a gas tank would be) and there isn't enough of it to actually sustain a fire. It's also claimed that it's simply not as easy to combust as it's made out to be, but I'm not a chemist and I don't know.