Leakage Rates of Refrigerants CFC-12, HCFC-22, and HFC-134a from Operating Mobile Air Conditioning Systems in Guangzhou, China: Tests inside a Busy Urban Tunnel under Hot and Humid Weather Conditions

Yanli Zhang (1) , Weiqiang Yang , Zhonghui Huang , Di Liu , Isobel Simpson , Donald R. Blake (2) , C. George (3) , Xinming Wang (1)

1 State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou
2 Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, California 92697,
3 CARE - IRCELYON-Catalytic and Atmospheric Reactivity for the Environment

Determining the leakage rates of halogenated refrigerants from operating mobile air conditioning systems (MACs) is a challenging task. Here, we take advantage of a heavily trafficked tunnel with a traffic flow of over 40,000 motor vehicles per day in south China. We carried out measurements in 2014 on hot and humid days, and therefore, it is reasonable to assume that essentially all of the MAC units would be turned on to ensure the thermo-comfort of the occupants. Thus, we obtained the leakage rates of the three most important refrigerants from the operating MACs aboard the on-road vehicles. The emission factors (EFs) of HFC-134a, HCFC-22, and CFC-12 from the on-road operating MACs are 1.27 ± 0.11, 0.47 ± 0.04, and 0.17 ± 0.04 mg km −1 veh −1 , respectively. Normalized by the percentages of vehicles using different refrigerants in their MACs, the emission rates of HFC-134a, HCFC-22, and CFC-12 are 52.2, 329, and 59.5 mg h −1 veh −1 , respectively. This emission rate of HFC-134a is approximately 10 times higher than those previously reported in Europe for stationary conditions and a whole-lifetime average of fugitive losses. The unusually high leakage rates suggest that improving the leak tightness of MACs in China would help to greatly lower their emissions. The global warming potentials associated with refrigerant leakage is equal to 1.4% of the CO 2 directly emitted due to fuel consumptions.

Domaines: Catalyse; Environnement et Société

Yanli Zhang, Weiqiang Yang, Zhonghui Huang, Di Liu, Isobel Simpson, et al.. Leakage Rates of Refrigerants CFC-12, HCFC-22, and HFC-134a from Operating Mobile Air Conditioning Systems in Guangzhou, China: Tests inside a Busy Urban Tunnel under Hot and Humid Weather Conditions. Environmental Science and Technology Letters, 2017, 4 (11), pp.481-486. ⟨10.1021/acs.estlett.7b00445⟩. ⟨hal-02895040⟩