Study on TFA in rivers in Germany – unrelated to the breakdown of HFOs

A recent scientific paper by Scheurer and colleagues [1] describes a comprehensive study on the quantities of trifluoroacetate found in major rivers across Germany.

The paper has important conclusions that are consistent with the expectation, from previous studies [2], that the emissions of HFCs and more recently HFOs that are being adopted as alternatives to HFCs by the Refrigeration and A/C industries are at the most insignificant contributors to the quantities of TFA found by the study.

[1] Marco Scheurer, Karsten Noedler, Finnian Freeling, Joachim Janda, Oliver Happel, Marcel Riegel, Uwe Müller, Florian Rüdiger Storck, Michael Fleig, Frank Thomas Lange, Andrea Brunsch, Heinz-Jürgen Brauch (2017), Small, mobile, persistent: Trifluoroacetate in the water cycle - Overlooked sources, pathways, and consequences for drinking water
[2] EFCTC_Learn_about_TFA_from_HFCs_HFOs.pdf