Automotive Engineering - December 2024 - 29

ENVIRONMENT FEATURE
Michigan
researchers
test rainwater
to find out
where and how
TFA collects
in the local
environment.
A coalition of environmental groups recently investigated widely used
PFAS in Michigan rainwater and reported in August 2024 that TFA was
" the largest contributor in two out of three sample locations and one of
the largest in the third location. "
Alternatives already available
Volkswagen Group started offering CO2-based, PFAS-free heat
pumps in the ID.3 and ID.4 in 2020, as well as on the Audi Q4
etron. Ford's electric Explorer, built on VW's MEB platform, also
has an optional CO2 heat pump. Ford has said that it sees propane,
code name R290, as the best refrigerant for next-generation
thermal architectures.
Michael Garry, editor at large for ATMOsphere, a global
market accelerator with a mission to clean up cooling, said,
" The natural refrigerant that is most slated to replace
[R-1234yf] (particularly in electric vehicle heat pumps) is CO2.
Propane is also discussed as a natural option but has gotten
less traction in the field so far. "
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents
over 20 automakers, declined to comment on a potential
European ban on R-1234yf. Instead, it referred us to a letter it
sent to Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency in 2023 when
the state was considering PFAS legislation. " Banning use of
the refrigerant now currently used in our vehicles, as the
Minnesota PFAS law might do, would...result in OEMs having
to significantly redesign and re-engineer our recently revamped
mobile air-conditioning systems and vehicles, possibly
even with the need to retrofit older vehicles, " the
Alliance said. " The definition of PFAS needs to be revised to
exempt these substances. "
If TFA is officially labeled PFAS, it would run afoul of states
that have enacted PFAS bans. California has one of the country's
strictest bans, but it was Maine that became the first U.S.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
December 2024 29
state to ban the sale of products containing intentionally added
PFAS and is scheduled to start addressing refrigerants in 2040.
Heidi Pickard, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard who has studied
TFAs, said, " Many of the [refrigerants] that are currently
used...can degrade into short-chain PFAS like TFA, which is
accumulating in the environment. Europe is pushing for the
ban of PFAS as a class, but it's unclear if this will include TFA. "
The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said
in a 2023 report that switching from R-1234yf to an R-744 system
(which uses CO2) would add 300 euros ($334.73) to the
cost of making each car with air-conditioning. " This would
mean a 1.7-billion-euro [$1.89 billion] increase per year for the
vehicle manufacturers in the EU and loss of competitiveness on
[the] worldwide market, " the report said. It also predicted parts
shortages as a result of the change.
BOTH IMAGES: THE ECOLOGY CENTER
http://info.hotims.com/86278-711
Automotive Engineering - December 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - December 2024
