High GWP refrigerant increases in the atmosphere
17th December 2024
CANADA: Researchers in Canada have found that HFC125, a high GWP gas and a major component of air conditioning refrigerant R410A, has increased exponentially in the past 20 years.
The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment, a research group at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and under contract with the Canadian Space Agency, is the first to use satellites to measure HFC125 in the atmosphere. Data collected shows a growth rate of 3.47 ± 0.05 ppt/year in the past six years.
Possessing a large GWP of 3920, HFC125 is included in a range of HFC refrigerants. It forms 50% of R410A, 25% of R407C and 44% of R404A and is also commonly found in fire extinguishers.
The University of Waterloo team has previously been measuring the decline of restricted ozone-depleting substances and the increase in global ozone. Now, the researchers are focused on measuring concentrations of HFC125 around the globe and between 11 and 25km up.
Then team uses Canada’s SCISAT satellite, which was launched in 2003, to help scientists improve their understanding of the depletion of the ozone layer.
“Our satellite has collected data since 2004, and we have found that HFC125 concentrations in the atmosphere are now nearly 10 times higher,” said Dr Peter Bernath, a professor in the Faculty of Science at Waterloo and mission scientist of the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment.
“With the new international regulations, we hope to soon see a decline in this increasing rate of HFC125 as we have with previously regulated refrigerants.”
The team’s satellite data will give climatologists more information to accurately predict climate change and reveal more about chemical reactions in the stratosphere. Before this study, the only other measurements available to climate modellers were at ground level or much lower in the atmosphere.
“After two decades in orbit and measuring more than 46 different atmospheric molecules, this solely Canadian mission has been one of the most, if not the most, successful Canadian scientific satellite missions,” Bernath said. “We continue to find new ways to provide information to the global scientific community about molecules in the atmosphere that affect the ozone layer and global warming.”
