The Science of Refrigerant Reclamation
Presented by Dr David Vicic, Chemistry professor at Lehigh University
The EARTH program (Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub) is a part of the NSF Engineering Research Center. It is a joint effort between (6) universities including Lehigh University. The aim of EARTH is to "create a sustainable refrigerant lifecycle to address technical, environmental, and societal challenges facing the HVACR industry." The research is composed of (3) parts: Reclamation & Repurposing, Novel & Safe Refrigerants, and Energy Efficient Systems.
Catalysts to oxidatively add the strong bonds present in HFCs such as the high-Greenhouse Gas (GHG) refrigerants 1,1,1-trifluoroethane (R-143a), 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (R-134a), and pentafluoroethane (R-125), have received little attention. HFCs are chemically inert, and F-eliminations can poison catalysts. We will provide the first comparative data for homogeneous activation/functionalization of the series R-143a, R-134a, and R-125 and provide full mechanistic analyses to enable application to other HFCs. This project will identify metals that can oxidatively add the C-H bond of normally refractory RfCH3, RfCH2F, and RfCHF2 functionalities to transform HFCs into value-added, low-GWP products. These new methods can also be applied to other chemistries, such as PFAS conversion.