Thinking of buying a car with aircon?

[VectraMan]

Coolant safety row puts the heat on Europe's carmakers | Reuters

When engineers at Mercedes-Benz tasked with field-testing a revolutionary new refrigerant watched it ignite in a ball of fire before their eyes, it took a while for the significance of their discovery to sink in.

Simulating a leak in the air-conditioning line of a Mercedes B-Class tourer, they had released a fine mixture of refrigerant and A/C compressor oil, which sprayed across the car's turbo-charged 1.6 litre engine.

The substance caught fire as soon as it hit the hot surface, releasing a toxic, corrosive gas as it burned. The car's windshield turned milky white as lethal hydrogen fluoride began eating its way into the glass.

At stake is not just a lucrative business for Honeywell and its partner Dupont (DD.N), who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, market and produce the coolant known as HFO-1234yf. Their refrigerant also happens to be the only product of its kind that meets new EU climate guidelines.

Because of concerns about greenhouse gases, EU legislators in Brussels have ordered the phasing out of the long-time industry standard, R134a, from January.

[d000hg]

Yesterday I was heating up some ginger wine (13% Vol) in a saucepan with a lid, over a low heat. When taking the lid off to inspect, what happened and why? (spoiler and my explanation in white below, so don't quote if you don't want to see!)

The condensation from the lid dripped onto the hob and promptly caught fire, the hob and pan were burning with a nice blue fire like an Xmas pud.

My understanding is I'd inadvertently created a super-simple still. Alcohol had evaporated more than water and condensed on the cold lid above 40% and was then flammable.

[original PM]

surely the whole buring up when sprayed across a hot piece of metal should have been found out in testing before it got anywhere near a car????

[northernladuk]

surely the whole buring up when sprayed across a hot piece of metal should have been found out in testing before it got anywhere near a car????

Remember this is the same company that designed a car, a thing that is generally assumed to turn left and right and works on 4 wheels only, that didn't do the third of these when carried out in this order. (moose test for anyone flumoxed)

[Spacecadet]

surely the whole buring up when sprayed across a hot piece of metal should have been found out in testing before it got anywhere near a car????

Correct

That's why that specific test was removed from the final test script

[NotAllThere]

The car's windshield turned milky white as lethal hydrogen fluoride began eating its way into the glass.

HF! Cool.

[Ignis Fatuus]

surely the whole buring up when sprayed across a hot piece of metal should have been found out in testing before it got anywhere near a car????

Possibly the coolant itself does not behave that way, but the real-world mixture with compressor oil does?

[VectraMan]

HF! Cool.

You won't be thinking that as it dissolves your lungs. Burning to death might be a blessing.

[Sysman]

Stone me.

Someone used the word "Fire".

I was taken to task for that & made to change it to "unexpected thermal transient" in one automotive report.