Isobutane is used as a refrigerant.[6] The use in refrigerators started in 1993 when Greenpeace presented the Greenfreeze project with the German company Foron.[7] In this regard, blends of pure, dry "isobutane" (R-600a) (that is, isobutane mixtures) have negligible ozone depletion potential and very low Global Warming Potential (having a value of 3.3 times the GWP of carbon dioxide) and can serve as a functional replacement for R-12, R-22, R-134a, and other chlorofluorocarbon or hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants in conventional stationary refrigeration and air conditioning systems.
In the Chevron Phillips slurry process for making high-density polyethylene, isobutane is used as a diluent. As the slurried polyethylene is removed, isobutane is "flashed" off, and condensed, and recycled back into the loop reactor for this purpose.[8]
Isobutane is also used as a propellant for aerosol cans and foam products.
Isobutane is used as part of blended fuels, especially common in fuel canisters used for camping.[9]
Isobutane is also used as a raw material in the manufacture of propylene oxide, where it is oxidized to tert-butyl hydroperoxide and subsequently reacted with propylene to yield propylene oxide. The tert-butanol that results as a by-product is typically used to make gasoline additives such as methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE).