Refrigerant's Impact on the Environment

Refrigerant (trade name Freon) is an inert gas like halon (used in fire suppression systems).

They are called "noble gasses" because they are extremely inert and stable, meaning they rarely react with other chemical elements.  The danger with these types of gases is they displace oxygen in the air.  This is how fire suppression systems put out a fire and the reason sufficient release of these gases in a confined area can cause suffocation. 

Refrigerant is a chemical compound.  What chemicals are in a refrigerant depends on the type of refrigerant.  Today, there are three specific types of refrigerants used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems:

1.    CFCs, such as R-11, R-12, and R-114

2.    HCFCs, such as R-22 or R-123

3.    HFCs, such as R-134a.

Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12), Monochlorodifluoromethane (R-22), and Refrigerant 502 (R-502), are called Primary Refrigerants because they change their state upon application and in the process absorbs and extracts heat from the area or substance.  These are the refrigerants more commonly used in residential units and smaller buildings. 

Refrigerants are classified into groups. The National Refrigeration Safety Code catalogs all refrigerants into three groups:

• Group I – safest of the refrigerants, such as R-12, R-22, and R-502
• Group II – toxic and somewhat flammable, such as R-40 (Methyl chloride) and R-764 (Sulfur dioxide)
• Group III – flammable refrigerants, such as R-170 (Ethane) and R-290 (Propane)

By safest in Group I, they mean the most inert (nontoxic, noncorrosive, nonflammable).  This type of refrigerant may not be flammable, but if you release it into a flame, it will create phosgene gas, which is highly toxic.  This group of refrigerant is so inert that once released into the air, they would be stable (not very bio-degradable) for decades.  Slowly, due to kinetic energy, they drift into the ozone layer and even higher into the upper atmosphere where ultraviolet radiation from the sun and oxygen isotopes breaks it down into its original components.  One of these components is chlorine.  The liberated chlorine starts its descend through the ozone layer changing ozone molecules back to oxygen.  Ozone is a form of oxygen - an isotope of it binds to these CFCs.  Worst yet, at this molecular level just one chlorine molecule can destroy millions of ozone molecules on its way through, thus depleting the ozone leaving living organisms vulnerable to ultraviolet rays.  Figure 1 illustrates this process.

Figure 1

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