The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has, for the first time, presented a vehicle equipped with a CO2 air conditioning unit at the 62nd IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover(25th September – 2nd October). The Federal Environment Agency commissioned the Obrist company to fit a standard Volkswagen (VW) Touran with a CO2 air conditioning system. Measurements of the performance of CO2 as a refrigerant in mobile air conditioning units make a case for its effectiveness.

The EU has decreed in Directive 2006/40/EC that only minimal amounts of climate-damaging refrigerants may now be used in motor vehicle air conditioning units. The tetrafluorethane (R134) used in the EU as the refrigerant in air conditioning systems up to now will be banned in new vehicle types as of 2011. After 2017, the ban will apply to all new vehicles. As an alternative, CO2 (known as refrigerant R744) demonstrates clear advantages: it has high cooling capacity, it is non-combustible, and immediately available worldwide at low cost. Although the deadline for the switch draws ever nearer automobile manufacturers have been slow to make the choice in favour of climate-friendly CO2 in motor vehicle air conditioning systems. Detractors of the CO2 solution have often claimed that energy consumption of CO2‑based air conditioning systems is higher than in those filled with tetrafluoroethane. UBA therefore had one of the vehicles in its fleet, a serially produced VW Touran, retrofitted with a CO2 air conditioning system.

Measurements prove that the CO2 system provides excellent cooling and is energy-efficient in operation. During a normal European summer the energy consumption of a CO2 air conditioning system is actually lower than in a serially produced R134a system. Test measurements done by the Allgemeine Deutsche Automobil Club (ADAC), Germany’s largest automobile club, corroborate these findings, reveals the entity’s press release. “The time to act is now: the automotive industry must implement this innovative and climate-friendly technology,” said UBA Vice President Dr. Thomas Holzmann.