Impact of leakage during HFC-125 production on the increase in HCFC-123 and HCFC-124 emissions

Western, Luke M.; Bourguet, Stephen; Crotwell, Molly; Hu, Lei; Krummel, Paul B.; De Longueville, Hélène; Manning, Alistair J.; Mühle, Jens; Rust, Dominique; Vimont, Isaac; Vollmer, Martin K.; An, Minde; Arduini, Jgor; Engel, Andreas; Fraser, Paul J.; Ganesan, Anita L.; Harth, Christina M.; Lunder, Chris; Maione, Michela; Montzka, Stephen A.; Nance, David; O'Doherty, Simon; Park, Sunyoung; Reimann, Stefan; Salameh, Peter K.; Schmidt, Roland; Stanley, Kieran M.; Wagenhäuser, Thomas; Young, Dickon; Rigby, Matt; Prinn, Ronald G.; Weiss, Ray F.

doi:10.5194/acp-25-17761-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 23

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17761-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17761-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 23

Research article

|

05 Dec 2025

Research article |

| 05 Dec 2025

Impact of leakage during HFC-125 production on the increase in HCFC-123 and HCFC-124 emissions

Luke M. Western, Stephen Bourguet, Molly Crotwell, Lei Hu, Paul B. Krummel, Hélène De Longueville, Alistair J. Manning, Jens Mühle, Dominique Rust, Isaac Vimont, Martin K. Vollmer, Minde An, Jgor Arduini, Andreas Engel, Paul J. Fraser, Anita L. Ganesan, Christina M. Harth, Chris Lunder, Michela Maione, Stephen A. Montzka, David Nance, Simon O'Doherty, Sunyoung Park, Stefan Reimann, Peter K. Salameh, Roland Schmidt, Kieran M. Stanley, Thomas Wagenhäuser, Dickon Young, Matt Rigby, Ronald G. Prinn, and Ray F. Weiss

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17761-2025-supplement

Data sets

Supplementary Datasets to "Impact of leakage during HFC-125 production on the increase in HCFC-123 and HCFC-124 emissions" L. M. Western et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15595387

The dataset of in-situ measurements of chemically and radiatively important atmospheric gases from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gas Experiment (AGAGE) and affiliated stations (2024R1) R. Prinn et al. https://doi.org/10.15485/2476540

HFCs Feedstock Data and Code S. Bourguet https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13890803

Model code and software

openghg/openghg_inversions: Release v0.5 B. Murphy et al. 0.5281/zenodo.17454638

mrghg/py12box: v0.2.1 M. Rigby and L. Western https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6857447

mrghg/py12box_invert: v0.0.2 M. Rigby and L. Western https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6857794

Download

Article (2475 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

We used atmospheric measurements to estimate emissions of two hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) gases, called HCFC-123 and HCFC-124, that harm the ozone layer. Despite international regulation to stop their production, their emissions have not fallen. This may be linked to how they are used to make other chemicals. Our findings show that some banned substances are still reaching the atmosphere, likely through leaks during chemical production, which could slow the recovery of the ozone layer.