DuPont: ‘End once and for all’ 1234yf question

18 October 2013  

CHEMICAL company DuPont is calling on German and European Union authorities to bring ‘an end once and for all’ to questions about safety related to HFO-1234yf.

In a statement the firm pointed out that Germany’s equivalent of the Department for Transport, known as the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), conducted testing earlier in the year designed to end the safety debate. It found no adequate evidence of a serious risk related to HFO-1234yf and plans to take no further action.

In an apparent slight at Mercedes-Benz, the statement made clear that nearly 10 months after the European Union’s MAC Directive went into force, a number of car models are still using the old refrigerant and that the EU needs to exert ‘clarity’ about when the VM would be forced to adopt the new gas.

“The MAC Directive has potential to eliminate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and it is a central part of the sustainability initiatives for the European Union” the statement concluded.