“On July 29, Honeywell, the largest fluorine chemistry company of the US, started operation of the equipment to fill new A/C refrigerant HFO-1234yf inside the premises of Showa Denko’s Chiba Operation located in Ichihara City of Chiba Prefecture.

The filled gas will be delivered from this base to mostly Japanese car manufacturers in Japan and or Thailand or other countries.

Although the gas has similar properties to those of HFC-134a which is currently used as a refrigerant for car air-conditioning, it has attained quite a low global-warming potential (GWP).

The GWP value is 1% or less while that of HFC-134a is 1300. The value had been reported to be 4% or less in the past, but the latest research has proved that it is less than that of carbon dioxide (1%).

The European Union decided to control the GWP value of A/C refrigerant down to less than 150, and started to apply it to all new cars (new models only) from January of this year in the MAC directive (on car A/C). From January 2017, the regulation will be applicable to all new cars (including minor changes).

As reported before, all the automobiles manufactured by Japanese car manufacturers for export to Europe have already adopted the gas. At present, it is used for new models only, but new model cars will be put into the market one after another and the applicable scope is destined to get wider. It means there will surely be more and more demand for HFO-1234yf.

The new filling equipment is designed and constructed by Showa Denko Gas Products under the supervision of Honeywell.

In the actual filling operation, HFO-1234yf produced in China and packed into 20ft ISO-certified containers (with a gas load of 15 tons) is received and filled directly into subdivided vessels while they make sure of purity, moisture value, inert gas and residues. Showa Denko Gas Products is assigned for filling and Tokyo Koatsu Yamazaki takes care of practical works. The filling capacity is 3 tons per day based on the 8-hour operation.

About 50 persons attended the opening ceremony which was held in the site on the same day. Katsuyuki Takise, director in charge of Asia Business of Fluorine Chemicals Division greeted saying, “As1234yf is a high-pressure gas, it is mandatory to carry out filling operations based on the High Pressure Gas Safety Act of Japan. With well-informed experienced Showa Denko Gas Products, we successfully have been able to establish this equipment. We are now going to supply our refrigerant in a way to respond to the requirements of the automobile industries.”

Norihide Takegasa, president of Showa Denko Gas Products said, “I am sure that the new filling station will contribute to conversion to the new refrigerant in the Asian region. We are also going to sell the new gas with you.””