Mexichem Japan started to make a sample shipment of a new refrigerant to replace HFC23 from the summer in 2020.

HFC23 is a refrigerant capable to cool down close to minus 70℃for a super-cold freezer but has a high GWP of 14,800. Therefore, it is the very gas that is most urgently required to be changed into a low-GWP refrigerant out of all HFCs in respect of the environmental measures at consumer’s side and the expansion of supply scope of HFC at the supply side

The gas which the company started to supply for trial shipment this summer had been developed by a British corporation of the Koura Group (The brand name changed from Mexichem.) to which the company belongs now.

The refrigerant is a mixture containing HFO having a GWP of 1,800. With the conversion from HFC23, as the filling volume can be saved by about 15%, about 90% of greenhouse gas can be reduced together in addition to the merit of lowering GWP. Furthermore, the refrigerating performance is so higher than HFC23 that an improvement in energy efficiency can be expected to operate equipment.
The British corporation of the Koura Group is going to apply to register the gas to ASHRAE, and if everything goes properly, the registration will be accepted in the summer of 2021.

For reference, the ultra-low temperature freezer used for medical or biological researches is quite a niche product. However, the vaccine of new coronavirus now on the world topic requires transportation and storage at a temperature of minus 70℃ or lower. So, there is an increasing expectation that the world market will rapidly expand looking for the freezer.