DuPont and Honeywell announced a joint development agreement Thursday for the development and commercialization of next generation, low global warming refrigerants for the automotive air conditioning industry.
The new refrigerants would help automakers meet regulations in Europe which require the use of low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants in mobile air conditioning (AC) applications.
Currently, automotive air conditioners use hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-134a. The new regulation goes into effect in 2011 for new models, with complete transition in 2017.
DuPont and Honeywell will jointly identify, develop, test and qualify new low GWP refrigerants.
“Honeywell has a proven track record of developing refrigerant technologies to meet industry and customer requirements,” said Terrence Hahn, vice president and general manager for Honeywell’s Fluorine Products business. “We look forward to providing a near drop-in replacement that reduces the need for costly system redesign for the automotive industry.”
“By leveraging DuPont and Honeywell resources, we can expedite product qualification and commercialization to provide a new global industry solution in time to meet regulations and effect an accelerated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions around the world.” said Cynthia Green, vice president and general manager for DuPont Fluoroproducts.
The companies plan to qualify a low GWP alternative by mid-2007.