Auto Makers Ending Use of Chemicals that Hurt Ozone
Under intense pressure from environmentalists, virtually all of the major American and Japanese auto makers have announced plans in recent days to redesign car air conditioners to end their emissions of chemicals that damage the earth’s protective ozone layer.
The auto makers have pledged to end their use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, the coolant that weakens the upper atmosphere’s ozone layer, which protects the earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays.
The leading auto makers, from Toyota to General Motors, have said they will make the switch away from CFCs beginning in the 1994 or 1995 model years.
“They are doing it just about as fast as they can,” said Kevin Fay, executive director of the Washington-based Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy, which represents CFC producers and industrial users.
Car air conditioners are considered the biggest single source of CFC emissions, accounting for about 20% of such pollution in the United States. In 1985, car air conditioners released 120 million pounds of CFCs into the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Most of the environmental damage comes when car air conditioners are serviced, and their coolant is vented and replaced. Refilling car air conditioners is responsible for about 100 million pounds of CFC emissions each year, according to Fay.
As a result, environmentalists around the world have focused on car air conditioners in their efforts to eliminate CFC use. A 1987 international agreement, signed by the United States, calls for the gradual reduction in CFC use through 1998. Meanwhile, local regulators around the country have also moved to impose even stiffer deadlines for banning CFC.
Experimental Coolant
Vermont, for example, passed a law earlier this year prohibiting the sale of any cars equipped with air conditioners using CFC coolants after 1993.
In place of CFCs, the auto industry is now experimenting with another coolant, named HFC-134a, which does not contain chlorine, the chemical in CFCs that poses a threat to the stratosphere. The replacement coolant, which has not yet been approved for use by the EPA, is now being tested for its toxicity, and animal testing is under way to determine whether it causes cancer.
Industry officials say they expect the new coolant will be approved by the EPA and ready for use by 1992.
But the new systems probably won’t be introduced on new cars and trucks until at least the 1994 model year, which begins in the fall of 1993. That extra time is needed, engineers say, to redesign existing air conditioner systems to accommodate the new coolant.
Since the new compound is not as efficient a coolant as CFCs, engineers say some key air conditioning parts, like condensers and evaporators, will have to be strengthened and enlarged in order to achieve the same cooling power of existing car systems. A lubricant that can dissolve in the new coolant also has to be discovered to keep the compressor and other components moving properly; lubricants now in use are dissolved by the chlorine in CFCs, and so would be useless with the new system, according to Douglas Mark, an emission engineer with GM’s environmental activities staff.
Finding a useful lubricant “is probably the hardest problem we’ve come across so far,” in redesigning air conditioners, said Mark.
Hidden Changes
The front grilles of some cars may also have to be enlarged to allow more air from outside to flow across the system’s condenser, Mark added.
Still, most engineers say, almost all of the changes will be under the hood and should not be noticeable to drivers. The air conditioners would still be operated with the same kinds of instrument panel controls that exist on today’s systems.
“From a passenger comfort point of view, it will be designed to provide the same comfort and efficiency” available on current systems, said Norman Nielsen, supervisor of government regulatory programs at Chrysler. “Some things under the hood might be a little bigger, but it won’t be anything very radical. If they are heavier than current air conditioners, it should only be a matter of ounces. It’s not going to be any big bulky system.”
Industry officials say it is too early too tell how much these changes will add to the price of a new car.
Some companies, most notably GM, also are attempting to gradually reduce CFC use before completely switching over to the new coolant.
GM announced that, beginning in the 1990 model year, it plans to equip its 10,000 dealers around the country with compact recycling machines that will recover the CFCs from air conditioners.
GM would thus be in compliance with a new city ordinance in Irvine seeking to impose tight restrictions on CFCs by next year. While it won’t ban car air conditioners, the city ordinance does call for the installation of CFC recycling equipment that could be used by repair shops when working on car air conditioners.
“GM is committed to phasing out CFCs in its processes and products as quickly as safe substitutes become available,” said Lloyd Reuss, GM’s executive vice president for North American automotive operations. “In the interim, recovery and recycling is a necessary and important step.”
