Thermo King announced it's the first in the industry to transition to a refrigerant with a lower global warming potential as standard in its truck and trailer refrigeration units.

The next generation of Thermo King’s 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. New units will no longer use R404A.

These actions contribute to Trane Technologies’ Gigaton Challenge to reduce customer emissions by a billion metric tons by 2030. The move will reduce the carbon footprint of refrigerants used by its customers’ long-haul, middle-mile, and last-mile delivery fleets by nearly 50%, or approximately 650,000 metric tons of CO2e annually, equivalent to the emissions of 143,000 passenger vehicles per year, according to the company.

In addition to helping customers meet their sustainability commitments, using a lower-GWP refrigerant will help customers prepare for future regulation.

Beginning in 2023, the California Air Resources Board will require transport refrigeration units operating in California to use refrigerants with a GWP of 2200 or less. In North America, Thermo King is one full year ahead of this regulation.