The Chemours Company has announced that, along with its partner Changshu 3F Zhonghao, it has broken ground on what it says is the world’s first full-scale production facility for HFO-1336mzz in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, China.

The site will provide increased capacity of low global warming potential (GWP) Formacel foam expansion agents and Opteon refrigerants and is expected to begin production in the middle of 2017.

President of Chemours Fluoroproducts, Thierry F J Vanlancker, said: “Breaking ground for our new HFO-1336mzz production facility paves the way for Chemours to add still more capacity to our industry-leading supply of products based on HFO technology. The Changshu facility shows our continued commitment to meeting the needs of our customers for high performance, environmentally friendly solutions that enable them to meet growing regulatory and sustainability demands.”

Diego Boeri, global business director, Chemours Fluorochemicals, added: “HFO technologies represent a clear path towards reducing greenhouse gases while also enhancing performance. In many cases our customers tell us they see an increase in their products’ efficiency when they use our HFO-based solutions. We are proud to manufacture these breakthrough products and expect to continue to add capacity as our customers increasingly transition to our new low GWP solutions.”

Chemours has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to offer customers new products with no ozone depletion and low global warming potential. The company and its suppliers have plans to invest hundreds of millions more in the next five years to bring online additional capacity of these more sustainable, high-performance products that serve a wide range of applications.