Honeywell has entered into a supply agreement with a Chinese manufacturer to produce Honeywell Solstice yf, further extending its global supply base for the low global warming potential mobile air conditioning refrigerant.

Through a multi-year agreement, Juhua Corp, one of China’s top fluorine material enterprises, will manufacture Solstice yf in China for Honeywell and Honeywell will market and sell the product to customers in the USA and Europe. Production is expected to begin by the end of 2016.

In addition to helping to meet worldwide demand, production in China can help support the future adoption of Solstice yf in the region. The extra production will complement capacity currently being built by Honeywell in the USA.

Solstice yf, also known as HFO-1234yf, is a next-generation hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) refrigerant with a global warming potential (GWP) of less than 1 – lower than carbon dioxide -- that is a near drop-in replacement for R-134a, a hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) with a GWP of 1,300.

Vice president and general manager of Honeywell Fluorine Products, Ken Gayer, said: “This agreement with Juhua will ensure supply to meet growing global demand as well as to help support future adoption of low-global-warming-potential products in China in response to concerns about increasing global greenhouse gas emissions.”

The agreement follows Honeywell’s recent announcement of another regional manufacturing supply agreement for Solstice yf and is in line with its commitment to meet growing demand through a robust and diversified global supply infrastructure. Honeywell and its suppliers are investing approximately $300m to increase global production capacity for Solstice yf, including the construction of a new, world-scale manufacturing plant using new process technology at the company’s existing Geismar, La, refrigerants manufacturing site.