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Follow on Google News | China expected to be largest production base of HFO-1234yf worldwideChina is expected to be the largest production base of HFO-1234yf worldwide in the near future, and it is expected to be dedicated to providing plenty of this ultra low GWP refrigerant applied to the mobile air conditioning systems
By: CCM Information Science & Technology Co., Ltd. In the past three years, something has happened silently in China: with the first project of HFO-1234yf industrialization worldwide in China in 2010, the latest dynamics show that more and more investors are about to launch programs of HFO-1234yf industrialization in China, thus China is expected to be the largest production base of HFO-1234yf worldwide in the near future. Generally speaking, besides DuPont, Honeywell, Arkema and DAIKIN are the few ones that can produce the refrigerant HFO-1234yf and have the ability to realize its industrialization around the world, especially DuPont and Honeywell which were the cooperative partners that firstly succeeded in the R&D of HFO-1234yf and then jointly launched the new product in 2007. On May 2010, DuPont and Honeywell announced that they would set up a joint venture to carry out the production of the new refrigerant HFO-1234yf but their marketing and sales would be carried out separately, which was in compliance with the previously signed contract of joint development of HFO-1234yf. However, actually this joint venture has not been set up yet. Moreover, there has been no public reporting of Honeywell's newly constructed projects or factories of HFO-1234yf to date. As to DuPont, it set up a cooperation project with Shanghai 3F New Material Co., Ltd. (Shanghai 3F) in Jan. 2010, which was also the first project of HFO-1234yf industrialization worldwide. Later on June 2010, Shanghai 3F issued a public notice and rapidly launched the construction. According to the cooperation project, a subsidiary of Shanghai 3F, Changshu 3F Zhonghao New Chemical Materials Co., Ltd. (Changshu 3F Zhonghao), would be in charge of the construction project and industrialized production of 3,000t/a HFO-1234yf, with technical support by DuPont. In addition, the HFO-1234yf produced by Changshu 3F Zhonghao would be sold to DuPont exclusively. Currently, the first phase (2,000t/a) of 3,000t/a HFO-1234yf project by Dupont has been launched into 100% production; the second phase (1,000t/a) will start to be constructed in the future and the related contractual agreement has been signed by both Dupont and Shanghai 3F. Even more exciting is that Arkema is about to put its first industrialization project of HFO-1234yf in China, with a capacity of 7,000t/a, which is bigger than that of DuPont's. On Oct. 17, 2012, Jiangsu Changshu Advanced Materials Industrial Park, which is located in Changshu City, Jiangsu Province, China, posted a public notice about the environmental impact assessment of Arkema's new project of 7,000t/a HFO-1234yf. According to the environmental impact assessment, Arkema (Changshu) Fluorine Chemical Co., Ltd., a plant of Arkema in China, will be in charge of the construction with gross investment of about USD94.44 million (RMB595 million), as well as the future operation of this project. Currently, the related interest party, which is in charge of drafting the environmental impact assessment report, revealed that the report is still being drafted and the time to be finished is not sure yet. Arkema has developed HFO-1234yf with independent technologies since 2008. At that time, Arkema declared that it had been able to produce laboratory scale quantities of HFO-1234yf and ever intended to carry out production with industrial scale in Europe. However, the plan in Europe seemed to be canceled, according to the Arkema 2011 Reference Document; Arkema said it was ready to invest in production facilities as soon as the legal environment permits. Besides the foreign investors, some domestic enterprises are showing more and more interests in HFO-1234yf and start the related R&D, which benefits the progress of HFO-1234yf development in China, pushing China to be the largest production base worldwide. On Dec. 6, 2011, Zhejiang Juhua Co., Ltd. (Juhua) announced that its subsidiary, Zhejiang Quhua Fluo-chemistry Co., Ltd., would probe into the R&D of HFO-1234yf under the cooperation with the R&D center of Juhua, using the existing resources from the R&D center including technical personnel, scientific achievements and research facilities. In addition, YujiChem, a newly founded high-tech company, said that it was able to produce HFO-1234yf in laboratory scale. It is note-worthy that China will not become the terminal consumption market of HFO-1234yf, even though China is expected to be the largest production base worldwide. That is mainly because China currently doesn't have regulation like Directive 2006/40/EC from the EU legislation, which imposes the application of environment- According to the EU Directive 2006/40/EC which was issued in May 2006, automotive air conditioning systems was forbidden to use the refrigerants with GWP>150, for newly-produced vehicles from Jan. 1, 2011 and for all vehicles from Jan. 1, 2017 (afterwards the date of Jan. 1, 2011 was altered and the latest modification was Jan. 1, 2013 but the date of Jan. 1, 2017 was not changed), and this law was applied to the production and sales of vehicles in European regions. HFO-1234yf is such a refrigerant with an ultra low GWP (GWP=4) which is far lower than the stated maximum index (GWP≤150), thus it perfectly accords with the mentioned requirement and is qualified to replace the current dominant refrigerant, HFC-134a (GWP=1300), to be applied to mobile air conditioning systems (MACs) in the automotive industry. In addition, HFO-1234yf has been tested in numerous performance comparisons, plenty of which indicate positive assessment to date, particularly with regard to its performance and efficiency. With the cooling capacity and coefficient of performance within a range of 5% compared with that of HFC-134a, HFO-1234yf is almost applicable (we use the word almost here, because there are still some modifications that manufacturers need to make in vehicle system, so as to fit in new refrigerant) HFO-1234yf is one of the best alternatives to HFC-134a because of its properties of ultra low GWP and low cost for technical transformation. HFO-1234yf has gained multi-national approval and more and more vehicle producers have started the collaboration with HFO-1234yf suppliers to develop new vehicle models equipped with new MACs using HFO-1234yf, so as to cater to the date on which EU Directive 2006/40/EC takes effect. During the Mobile Air Conditioning Society Worldwide convention and trade show in Las Vegas, the US, in July 2012, it was revealed that one vehicle was already being sold with the new refrigerant in Europe - the Subaru XV. Hyundai was next in line to use HFO-1234yf in its i30 model in European market. It was considered that the first vehicle using the new refrigerant in the US was General Motor’s Cadillac XTS during spring 2012. HFO-1234yf manufacturers said that a number of deals had been signed with carmakers. Source: China Fluoride Materials Monthly Report 1211 http://www.cnchemicals.com/ Email: econtact@cnchemicals.com End
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