Honeywell has started full-scale commercial production of a low-global-warming-potential (GWP) material used as an aerosol propellant, insulating agent and refrigerant.

The material, known by the industry designation HFO-1234ze and marketed by Honeywell under its Solstice line of low-global-warming materials, is being produced at the Honeywell Fluorine Products facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Ken Gayer, vice president and general manager of Honeywell’s Fluorine Products business, said: “Honeywell’s Baton Rouge production facility is ready to serve customers around the world with this innovative material, which has an ultra-low GWP of less than 1. We are seeing increasing demand for our entire Solstice line of low GWP materials, and this new product has already been adopted by a range of customers globally.”

Honeywell’s Baton Rouge facility was built in 1945 and continues to serve as one of its main manufacturing sites for its Performance Materials and Technologies business. The site employs more than 200 people.

In September 2014, at an event sponsored by the White House, Honeywell announced that it will increase production of its low GWP refrigerants, insulation materials, aerosols and solvents, and, prior to 2020, will drive a 50 per cent reduction in its annual production of high GWP hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) on a CO₂ equivalent basis. The company projects that use of its low GWP Solstice materials to replace HFCs will eliminate more than 350 million metric tons in CO₂ equivalents by 2025, equivalent to removing 70 million cars from the road for one year.

HFO-1234ze is a next-generation material that is non-ozone-depleting, non-flammable per ASTM E681 and ISO 10156:2010 testing, and has a low-global-warming-potential of less than 1.  It is also not a volatile organic compound (VOC), as determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resource Board (CARB).