The environmental impact of refrigerants over the entire life cycle of fluid and equipment, including power consumption, is captured in the life cycle climate performance (LCCP) value. The lower the value, the lower the environmental impact.
In this report the LCCP of hydrocarbon R-290 (Propane) and the two HFC blends, R-410A and R-404A, were evaluated for an 11 kW medium temperature refrigeration system having -18 °C to 0 °C evaporator saturated refrigerant temperature. Major findings of the current
study are:

• The LCCP of R-410A is equal to that of R-290 and the LCCP of R-404A is 6.5% higher than that of R-290 for systems with condensing temperatures of 46.0°C to 47.6°C, which are representative of typical design practice.
• On an equal first cost basis, the LCCP of R-410A is 4.2% lower and the LCCP of R-404A is 1.8% higher than that of R-290. The underlying assumption is that the first cost
of the R-290 system may be, for example, 10% higher due to added safety features, and on an equal cost basis, the HFC systems would use the additional cost for a larger
condenser.
• Since the underlying baseline test is based on a relatively small condenser, and since a conservative safety cost estimate is used, it is expected that the environmental impact of both R-404A and R-410A would be reduced further as compared to R-290 in future
system designs.
Roger