The German Environment Agency (UBA) has agreed to come to Atmosphere 2009 in the world’s first vehicle equipped with a CO2 Mobile Air Conditioning that is used on a daily basis for government transport. Attendees can register for a free test ride to convince themselves that R744 is efficiently and reliably working to cool a car.

Normally part of UBA’s car fleet and last in service for high-level delegates meeting at the global Bonn Climate Change Talks in June, the UBA’s VW Touran will be put at the disposal of participants of Atmosphere 2009. After a dedicated speech by Uwe Lahl, Director-General of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, the CO₂ car will be available for a short presentation explaining basic technical details just outside the conference hall, and later for free test rides to experience how efficiently and reliably the innovative R744 air conditioning is working. Registration for the test rides will be open from Monday morning on for all interested participants.

While the debate about a next-generation refrigerant in cars is raging on, UBA will demonstrate that CO₂ is not a mere concept on the drawing board but working already today. The car, for the moment unique in its daily operation for governmental services, has even saved energy as compared to a conventional R134a MAC system, at high safety and reliability. Measurements carried out in a research project sponsored by the German Environment Ministry had testified the excellent cooling performance and environmental benefits. Other independent tests had confirmed these results.

In 2007, emissions of R134a - the currently used refrigerant in MAC – led to 3.2 million tones of CO₂ equivalents emissions in Germany alone. This equals the annual CO₂ emissions of 1.3 million passenger cars.

Test drives in Brussels

For skeptics and proponents of R744 in Mobile Air Conditioning, UBA will explain the system design and operational characteristics of the high-pressure system during the lunch break on Monday morning. Right after the short demonstration the car will be available for real-life testing in Brussels – the administrative heart of the European Union.