Dupont has said it has made significant progress towards developing and commercialising a new refrigerant for automotive air conditioning that has considerably lower global warming potential than the hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) R-134a product currently used. The new refrigerant, hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO)-1234yf, came through a joint development agreement between Dupont and Honeywell. Dupont claims the use of the new refrigerant in new cars has the potential to save more than 2,200 million litres - or about 590 million gallons of fuel - a year. The company said this is the equivalent of taking 1.5 million cars off the road each year.