Honeywell to Spite $300 Million to Launch New Type of Refrigerant

Honeywell announced that it will spend nearly 300 million U.S. dollars to build a new plant in the United States and start production of a new air-conditioning refrigerant, HFO-1234yf.

Honeywell currently has a production facility in Geismar, Louisiana, USA, where the new plant will be built and is expected to be fully operational in 2016. As for the scale of the plant, Honeywell said it will decide based on future market demand.

Honeywell said that its new HFO-1234yf refrigerant has very high environmental performance, and its Global Warming Potential (GWP) is less than 1, with the HFC-134a refrigerant widely used in the market today. Compared to 99.9% lower, GWP is even lower than carbon dioxide.

“In view of the concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and the European and US regulations on the introduction of the Automotive Air Conditioning and Average Fuel Economy Regulations (CAFE), the global demand for HFO-1234yf is continuously increasing”, Honeywell High Performance Materials and Technology Andreas Kramvis, president and chief executive officer, said: “After years of analysis by the automotive industry, policy makers and environmental groups, HFO-1234yf has proved to be a safe, effective and reliable solution to the problem of global warming and fuel economy.”

According to European directives on new vehicle air-conditioning refrigerants, all cars sold in Europe in 2017 must meet GWP requirements of 150. The HGW-134a refrigerant has a GWP of 1,300, while HFO-1234yf has a low GWP. In 1.