Honeywell team up with Juhua Corp
USA – Honeywell have tday released a statement announcing that they have entered into a supply agreement with a Chinese manufacturer to produce Honeywell Solstice® yf, further extending its global supply base for this low-global-warming-potential mobile air conditioning refrigerant.
Under 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 U.S 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 additional production will complement capacity currently being built by Honeywell in the U.S.
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.
Ken Gayer, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Fluorine Products, commented on the agreement, saying “Honeywell’s investments, and that of its partners, will ensure that customers will have a reliable supply of this groundbreaking, environmentally preferable technology that is safely cooling more than 8 million cars worldwide. 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 comes hot on the heels of Honeywell’s recent announcement of another regional manufacturing supply agreement for Solstice yf and is in line with Honeywell’s commitment to meet growing demand through a robust and diversified global supply infrastructure. Honeywell and its suppliers are investing approximately $300 million 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. Solstice yf is also being used in a growing number of stationary air conditioning and commercial refrigeration applications. The demand for Solstice yf for use in mobile air conditioning is increasing rapidly due to increased global environmental regulations and policies aimed at reducing the global warming impacts of HFCs.
