Eight of the HVAC industry’s top experts will deliver the automotive sector leg of this year’s future:gas refrigerant seminar series, which for the automotive sector kicks off in late July aimed at businesses and technicians in the automotive air-conditioning business.

The impressive speaker line-up comprises Refrigerant Reclaim Australia general manager Kylie Farrelley, VASA director and former president Ian Stangroome, Sythree principal and director John McCormack (representing Chemours in Australia), Honeywell representative in Australia Eric Yang, VASA VP and Rowe Auto Electrical/Jimboomba Batteries director Mark Rowe, VASA president and SuperCool Group training division manager Brett Meads, Refrigerants Australia executive director Greg Picker and A-Gas New Zealand country manager Mitch Williamson.

Tickets to the 2023 future:gas refrigerant roadshow are now on sale at futuregas.ac/automotive

The automotive section of the tour will kick off in Auckland, NZ, on July 25 and end in Perth, WA, on September 6.

Venue information and Google Maps navigation links are located here

Please note that the Darwin automotive event has changed to Monday, September 4.

A separate tour aimed at the stationary sector is currently in progress, beginning in Vanuatu on May 11 and ending in Lae, PNG, on July 12.

To help as many people as possible to attend, the seminars will take place on weekday evenings during the winter.

Doors open at 5pm, with complimentary welcome drinks, food and trade displays. Be there by 5.30pm for a 6pm start.

Heavily subsidised by corporate and industry support, tickets to future:gas seminars are just $20 per participant.

R1234yf is a synthetic HFO refrigerant co-developed by DuPont and Honeywell as a successor to R134a for automotive air-conditioning applications.

Its global warming potential (GWP) is ultra-low, with a rating of less than 1. This means that one kilogram of R1234yf released to atmosphere has a significantly lower greenhouse effect than a kilogram of carbon dioxide. For comparison, R134a has a GWP of 1300.

Years of intensive research were undertaken by the automotive industry to find a replacement for R134a, resulting in the selection of R1234yf as the new standard refrigerant for new systems.

Compared with R134a, considerable upgrades to component quality and robustness, as well as compliance with a number of new SAE standards, have been engineered into R1234yf systems. The systems are designed to prevent potential refrigerant leakage onto the cabin.

From a service and repair standpoint, R1234yf has similar thermal properties to R134a, meaning there are only minor system layout and design differences and faults can be diagnosed using the same methods as R134a.

The biggest difference is R1234yf’s A2L flammability rating, which means it is mildly flammable. This has implications for workplace health and safety procedures and means Dangerous Goods rules apply to the storage, transport and handling of this gas.

To ensure workplace safety, new SAE standards apply to the equipment used to service R1234yf systems. Some equipment is rated as compatible with both R134a and R1234yf and some equipment is suitable only for R1234yf.

R134a service equipment and system components are not interchangeable with R1234yf systems unless they meet the relevant SAE standards.