On January 20, Honeywell Japan (President: E. Wagner) started to sell 200g-service cans of HFO1234yf which is positioned as a next generation refrigerant, through the distribution network of Air Water Sol Co., Ltd. of its sales partner.

The product (trade name: SOLSTICEyf) is a refrigerant for automotive A/C to replace the existing HFC134a. The biggest feature is that it has realized a low GWP of less than 1 for 1430 of HFC134a and has been classified as non-fluorocarbon under the domestic laws.

The newly launched 200g-service can is based on the standard of the Japan Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association. The production and filling of the gas are carried out by the domestic contract manufacturers of the company.

The delivery of HFO1234yf filled in large-sized cylinders started to automotive A/C manufacturers several years ago mainly for exported to Europe, but there has been no progress in diffusion to the automotive aftermarket. Katsuyuki Takinose division Manager in charge of Japanese market explained the reason of launching the service can into the market that there is an increased demand for SOLSTICEyf in the repair or maintenance of A/C for the automobiles of new model. The company intends to contribute to the accomplishment of Japan’s target to reduce greenhouse gas.

The number of automobiles adopting HFO1234yf released from Honeywell has reached over 10 million all over the world and it is estimated to be renewed up to 40 million or more toward the end of 2017. They say that the demand of the refrigerant is rapidly increasing following the stricter control of regulations over the world such as the MAC directives in Europe or the SNAP program of the United States of America.