BOC has introduced Opteon YF (R1234yf), a new environmentally friendly refrigerant for cars, in the UK and Ireland.
Produced by DuPont, Opteon YF has a significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) but the same cooling capability as the current car refrigerant R134a. Since January 2011, the EU's MAC Directive 2006/40 has capped the GWP of mobile air conditioning (MAC) refrigerant gases used in new car design platforms at 150. With a GWP of just 4, Opteon YF is 99.7% lower than that of R134a and substantially reduces the carbon footprint of the refrigeration system over the vehicle's lifetime, BOC says.

BOC's sales and marketing manager for refrigerants, Ruth Leland, said: 'We are extremely pleased to offer Opteon YF across the UK. We are seeing a steady increase in demand for Opteon YF as car manufacturers continue to launch new car models or platforms and need to move to a refrigerant with very low global warming potential'.

From 2017, the MAC Directive will apply to all new cars regardless of when the platform was introduced. The phase-out of high GWP refrigerants will impact all areas of the automotive industry, from manufacturing to aftercare servicing and repair.