April 2010 Environmental Update

New Refrigerants

As of January 1, 2011 HFC-134a will be banned in new European autos. CO2 has been a leading candidate to replace HFC-134a but poses a number of hurdles to commercialization. Now a new alternative, HFO-1234yf, with a GWP of 4 meets the EU maximum of 150 for autos and is proceeding through tests. It has been selected as the preferred low GWP refrigerant by global automotive OEMs. Though mildly flammable the low charge size minimizes safety risks.

Although there are no bans globally on HFC-134a the use of HFO-1234yf as a replacement would pose challenges in stationary equipment where charge sizes are larger.

 A non-flammable azeotropic refrigerant blend based on HFO-1234yf, called DR-11, has been developed as a potential lower GWP refrigerant that could potentially be used to replace R-134a in stationary refrigeration equipment.

Green Manufacturing in China

According to a just completed survey (by Booz & Co) of 202 foreign-invested manufacturing companies in China:

•  75% of respondents said that they were adopting green technology in their China operations
• 60% anticipate savings to operations from their green investment
• The number one priority was to increase energy efficiency (86 %) followed by conserving or recycling water (83 %)
• nearly 80 %have analyzed their energy usage in order to improve efficiency,
• fewer than 50 % said that they have defined their water footprint

Only 30% of respondents said that they could demand higher prices for green products and services in China, compared to 46 percent of companies that said they do so in other markets around the world.

(To read the Executive Summary of the Booz & Co report follow this link)

Clean Energy

U.S. Adds Record Amount Of Wind Power in 2009.

More than 10,000 megawatts of wind power capacity, or 5,700 turbines, were installed in 2009.

Clean energy comprised 10% of Germany's energy in 2009. Biomass sources were the single biggest supplier.