Energy, Climate, and Environment Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.
Climate and Clean Air Coalition, United Nations Environment Programme, 75015 Paris, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Aug 23;119(34):e2206131119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2206131119. Epub 2022 Aug 15.
Split air conditioners (ACs) are the most used appliance for space cooling worldwide. The phase-down of refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP) prescribed by the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol has triggered a major effort to find less harmful alternative refrigerants. HFC-32 is currently the most common refrigerant to replace HFC-410A in split ACs. The GWP of HFC-32 is about one-third that of HFC-410A but still considerably higher than that of a growing number of nonfluorinated alternatives like propane with a GWP of <1, which have recently become commercially available for split ACs. Here, we show that a switch to propane as an energy-efficient and commercially available low-GWP alternative in split ACs could avoid 0.09 (0.06 to 0.12) °C increase in global temperature by the end of the century. This is significantly more than the 0.03 (0.02 to 0.05) °C avoided warming from a complete switch to HFC-32 in split ACs.
分体式空调（AC）是全球用于空间冷却的最常用设备。《蒙特利尔议定书》基加利修正案规定逐步淘汰全球变暖潜能值（GWP）较高的制冷剂，这促使人们大力寻找危害较小的替代制冷剂。目前，HFC-32 是替代分体式空调中 HFC-410A 的最常用制冷剂。HFC-32 的 GWP 约为 HFC-410A 的三分之一，但仍远高于越来越多的非氟化替代品，如 GWP<1 的丙烷，最近已可用于分体式空调。在这里，我们表明，在分体式空调中改用丙烷作为节能且商业上可行的低 GWP 替代品，可以避免本世纪末全球气温升高 0.09（0.06 至 0.12）摄氏度。这明显高于完全改用 HFC-32 替代分体式空调可避免的 0.03（0.02 至 0.05）摄氏度的变暖。
