title: Ranking of refrigerants.
abstract: Environmental ranking of refrigerants is of need in many instances. The aim is to assess the relative environmental hazard posed by 40 refrigerants, including those used in the past, those presently used, and some proposed substitutes. Ranking is based upon ozone depletion potential, global warming potential, and atmospheric lifetime and is achieved by applying the Hasse diagram technique, a mathematical method that allows us to assess order relationships of chemicals. The refrigerants are divided into 13 classes, of which the chlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluoroethers, and hydrocarbons contain the largest number of single substances. The dominance degree, a method for measuring order relationships among classes, is discussed and applied to the 13 refrigerant classes. The results show that some hydrofluoroethers are as problematic as the hydrofluorocarbons. Hydrocarbons and ammonia are the least problematic refrigerants with respect to the three environmental properties.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Restrepo
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weckert
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brüggemann
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gerstmann
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000145:classification*; D000641:Ammonia / Q000145:classification*; D004987:Ethers / Q000145:classification*; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000145:classification*; D010126:Ozone; D012034:Refrigeration
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D004987:Ethers; D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010126:Ozone; D000641:Ammonia