Alliance One-Pagers

Mass production of modern refrigerators began after World War II. Food was previously refrigerated with snow, ice, cool streams, caves and cellars, but with significant deficiencies. Refrigerators, today, are the most used home appliance and many believe refrigerators are the most important consumer product. Household refrigerators provide for convenient, safe food preservation and help to sustain modern life.

Household refrigerators consist of two critical components: a refrigerant and thermal insulation. Both require safe, energy efficient chemicals. A refrigerant absorbs heat from the refrigerator cabinet space and transfers it outside. Thermal insulation requires highly energy efficient foam blowing agents to limit heat transfer to refrigerated cold spaces and reduce energy consumption.

Since the mid-1980s, household refrigerators have transitioned from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), to low or non-ozone depleting compounds such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrocarbons (HCs). Recently, most have used HCFC-141b blowing agent and HFC-134a refrigerant, although some countries have emphasized isobutane refrigerant and cyclopentane blowing agent options.

Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) is an application's measure of global warming contribution. LCCP is expressed as kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2)emitted. This includes both the greenhouse gas emissions from the refrigerant and blowing agent (direct effect), and the resultant CO2 emissions from producing energy using fossil fuels to power the refrigerator (indirect effect). In the past, a household refrigerator's environmental impact has been principally a result of energy consumption and CFC emissions. Recently, more efficient products and new refrigerant fluids such as HFCs have reduced this impact over 80%.

Today, the indirect effect can represent more than 90% of the refrigerator's impact. Less relevant is the possibility of refrigerant emissions during use and decommissioning. These product life-time emissions are rare with modern highly efficient refrigerators. It is common practice to recover fluorocarbon refrigerants during decommissioning. Additionally, recent research indicates that only a small amount of fluorocarbon blowing agent is emitted from the foam insulation after decommissioning. The total direct effect is less than 10% of the product's climate change impact.

Refrigerator environmental impact reduction opportunities exist by improving energy consumption. This can involve both the quality of insulation and choice of refrigerant fluid. Good insulation reduces heat gain to refrigerated cold spaces. Studies show that insulation using HFC blowing agents is inherently more efficient (up to 10%) and longer-lasting than that using other blowing agents such as HCs, water or CO₂.

The perfect refrigerant does not exist. Key choice factors include safety and thermodynamic efficiency to extract heat. Ammonia and HCs are excellent refrigerants but are flammable or toxic, demanding safety precautions.

After World War II, household refrigerators used CFC-12 as refrigerant and CFC-11 as the insulation blowing agent. With the CFC phase out, other options were adopted:

• For refrigerant: HFC-134a and isobutane
• For blowing agents: HCFC-141b and cyclopentane

Laws and regulations vary by country. The phaseout of HCFC-141b as an insulation blowing agent will result in additional changes. HFC-134a and HFC-245fa blown foam insulation and HFC-134a refrigerant will be used in the United States. Various options will be used by other countries.

Commercially available throughout the world, HFCs are energy efficient, low in toxicity, cost-effective, can be used safely and are reusable. Using HCs requires additional considerations such as:

The Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy is a leading industry voice which coordinates industry participation in the development of reasonable international and U.S. Government policies regarding ozone protection and global climate change.