Refrigerants are crucial to the environmental sustainability of refrigeration, air-conditioning and heating. They affect both direct refrigerant emissions and the energy efficiency of equipment operation. The revised EU F-Gas regulation reduces the further use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and refrigerant mixtures containing HFCs with high GWPs. At the same time, the use of some natural refrigerants with lower GWPs, which are not subject to F-gas regulation, reaches safety limits towards high pressure or flammability.

The presentation gives an overview of the legal and safety requirements when using refrigerants. R-474A is presented as a possible solution. Thermo-physical properties and important material properties are also presented.