USA: Transport refrigeration company Thermo King is to cease the supply in North America of its Precedent truck and trailer units using the high GWP refrigerant R404A.

Thermo King says it will transition its Precedent trailer portfolio will transition to the lower-GWP refrigerant R452A in January 2022, and truck products will come standard with the new refrigerant mid-2022.

The move marks another step by the USA to phase down HFCs through the US AIM Act and bring it into line with the Kigali Amendment.

Sold by Chemours as Opteon XP44, R452A has a GWP of around 2141, which, although high, is a substantial reduction on R404A’s 3922. It is said to have the same cooling capacity, fuel efficiency, reliability and refrigerant charge as R404A, and is actively promoted as a “drop-in” conversion for R404A.

The refrigerant has already been widely adopted in Europe and elsewhere with no reported problems. It was adopted by Thermo King as the standard refrigerant in Europe way back in 2016.

While R452A is already available as a “drop-in” in the USA, it will now become standard for Thermo King.