Chemours Fluoroproducts has announced that it has doubled the supply of low-GWP Opteon YF (HFO-1234yf) refrigerant in Zhonghao, China.

The additional supply enables Chemours to meet growing needs for more sustainable mobile and stationary air conditioning applications. This increase in capacity is particularly significant due to the announcement on 2 July by the US Environmental Protection Agency of a Final Rule to eliminate HFC-134a from its list of acceptable refrigerants for new automobile air conditioners, effective for the 2021 model year.

Opteon YF was originally developed in response to Europe’s Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive, which calledfor the use of a refrigerant that has a GWP below 150. This created a critical need for a refrigerant that not only met this requirement, but also performed well in terms of safety, performance, fuel efficiency and cost effectiveness. Opteon YF has been proven to provide the optimal balance of these properties and has been adopted globally by major automotive manufacturers. Chemours now forecasts that there will be more than nine million vehicles using HFO-1234yf on the road by the end of 2015.

In addition to mobile applications, Chemours recently announced the commercialisation of its Opteon XP product line in Europe for stationary applications. This includes Opteon XP40, Opteon XP10, and Opteon XP44, designed to support regulatory requirements by replacing HFC-404A and HFC-134a in commercial refrigeration and other stationary applications. The Opteon XP product line is expected to be ready for sale in the USA in August this year.

President of Chemours Fluoroproducts Thierry FJ Vanlancker said: “Chemours was the first company to establish capacity of HFO-1234yf and has the world’s largest capacity today. We were the first company to offer commercial-scale manufacturing, and made the first commercial shipments from our original facility in Japan in November 2011 and our China facility in 2012. With this capacity increase at our Zhonghao facility we believe we have sufficient supply to meet our customers’ current demand, and are in the final planning stages of our next increments of capacity to ensure we meet growing future demand.”

Diego Boeri, global business director, Chemours Fluorochemicals, said: “Chemours has put in place aftermarket distribution capabilities in 40 countries in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, and across the United States. Service equipment for use in handling this product is commercially available and aftermarket service capability is developing in new countries as vehicles containing HFO-1234yf go to market there. This enables automakers to easily adopt Opteon YF and comply with the MAC Directive in Europe or to take advantage of greenhouse gas credits in the United States.”