Purohit, P, Höglund-Isaksson, L, Borgford-Parnell, N et al. (2 more authors) (2022) The key role of propane in a sustainable cooling sector. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 119 (34). e2206131119. ISSN 0027-8424
Abstract
Split air conditioners (ACs) are the most used appliance for space cooling worldwide. The phase-down of refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP) prescribed by the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol has triggered a major effort to find less harmful alternative refrigerants. HFC-32 is currently the most common refrigerant to replace HFC-410A in split ACs. The GWP of HFC-32 is about one-third that of HFC-410A but still considerably higher than that of a growing number of nonfluorinated alternatives like propane with a GWP of <1, which have recently become commercially available for split ACs. Here, we show that a switch to propane as an energy-efficient and commercially available low-GWP alternative in split ACs could avoid 0.09 (0.06 to 0.12) °C increase in global temperature by the end of the century. This is significantly more than the 0.03 (0.02 to 0.05) °C avoided warming from a complete switch to HFC-32 in split ACs.
Metadata
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). | ||||
Keywords: | hydrofluorocarbon; Kigali Amendment; split air conditioners; low-GWP alternatives; propane | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) | ||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications | ||||
Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2022 11:43 | ||||
Last Modified: | 18 Aug 2022 11:43 | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206131119 |