Portable Destruction of High-GWP Refrigerants Using Low-Temperature Plasma-Water Arc

Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases have ultra-high global warming potentials, typically between 700-13,000 times the potency of CO2. Vast banks of HFCs within ubiquitous cooling equipment and storage tanks leak or are intentionally released to the atmosphere. Current destruction technologies are insufficiently deployed, costly, energy intensive, and can generate toxic PFAS. This proposal will develop and pilot a new approach to HFC destruction, transforming the technology from bench scale into a market-ready solution. This phase of the project will center on pre-commercial activities, including testing a wider range of HFCs, prototype and scale engineering, and collaboration with industry and non-profit stakeholders. This new system could prevent the release of gigatons of CO2e emissions to the atmosphere, representing a significant contribution to climate change mitigation. This project is also supported by expertise from the Carbon Containment Lab.