Refrigeration system in cars using ammonia technique.

In this article widely accepted fact that refrigerants, especially chlorofluorocarbons (R-12 and family) used in present day vapor compression cycles are having a detrimental effect on the earth's upper atmosphere. The United States and most industrialized nations have formally agreed to reduce and ban the production of these chemicals. The automotive air-conditioning industry is greatly affected by this change. Eighty percent of the new cars sold today have on-board air conditioners which are difficult to seal permanently against refrigerant leakage. While most of the industry is concentrating on finding less dangerous forms of chlorofluorocarbons, it must be realized that this would only be a temporary solution. Recent EPA findings show that by 1990 there was cumulative 5% reduction in the ozone layer over the United States. This could, if continued, lead to over 12 million cancer cases and 200,000 deaths over the next 50 years. Energy from the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine is used to power an absorption refrigeration system to air-condition an ordinary passenger car. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]