As the only manufacturer that develops and manufactures both air conditioners and refrigerants, Daikin launched the world’s first residential-use air conditioner using R-32 refrigerant.

Refrigerant Trends

Various refrigerants have been used in air conditioners until now. Regulations have increasingly become stricter from greater consideration for the global environment because of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 and the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. This has resulted in a shift to refrigerants with even lower environmental impact.

Although the mainstream refrigerant R-410A has an ozone depletion potential (ODP) of zero, its global warming potential (GWP) still remains an issue.

While R-32 also has an ozone depletion potential of zero, the refrigerant has only approximately 1/3 of the GWP of R-410A. Consequently, investigation of this promising next generation refrigerant has increased.

However, because R-32 had been an extremely difficult refrigerant to handle, its use was not practical until now. Daikin became the world’s first company to succeed in applying R-32 to air conditioners by leveraging its expertise as the only manufacturer that develops and manufactures both air conditioners and refrigerants.

Currently, R-410A is the refrigerant most commonly used in developed countries. However, if all R-410A were converted to R-32, the impact to global warming from HFCs in 2030 would be reduced by the CO2 equivalent of approximately 800 million tons (19%) compared to the continued use of R-410A.*2

*1)
Values for 100 year global warming potential (GWP) from IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Comparative 100 year GWP: HFC410A, 2,090; HFC32, 675.
*2)
Daikin calculations based on thesis, Velders et al, PNAS (2009), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) library.