From July 1 The Chemours will start to sell two new refrigerants to replace R404A through its subsidiary DuPont-Mitsui Fluorochemicals (MDF).

The GWP of R404A for refrigerating/freezing appliances for business use is so high (3922) that an alternative refrigerant of lower GWP and higher cost performance is required over the world now. Japan determined a target to reduce the GWP of the refrigerant of that sort down to 1,500 or less by 2025 under the Fluorocarbon Emission Control Law. It urges to reduce the use of R404A as a matter of fact. One of the two refrigerants to be launched by MDF this summer is most characteristic having a GWP of 1,500 or less enabling conformity to the law and improvement of efficiency.

The refrigerants to be launched are R449A (named “OPTEON XP40”) and R452 (named “OPTEON XP44”), both of which are blended refrigerants developed by its mother company Chemours of the US having the features of low GWP, non-flammability, energy saving and retrofit (usable with simple adjustments). For reference, OPTEON is the trade name of Chemours’ next-generation refrigerant with HFO as its core.

XP40 with a GWP of 1397 is a refrigerant suitable for refrigerating/freezing showcases at a medium or low level range of temperature. According to the company, more than 2,000 shops in Europe and several hundred shops in the US had already introduced the refrigerants until the end of 2016, and they still keep expanding now. GEA of Germany, Frascold of Italy and Danfoss of Denmark have recognized and launched responsive air-conditioners into the market.

As for energy saving, they say that an efficiency enhancement more than 10% on the average has been recognized in the field of refrigeration. Thanks to retrofitting the conventional equipment can be used as it is. In Europe they sell refrigerating/freezing products dedicated for XP40. It is expected that similar products will show up in the market in or after coming autumn also in Japan.

XP44 with a GWP of 2141 is a refrigerant for transporting refrigeration/freezing facilities loaded on chill vehicles. Its difference from XP40 is responsiveness to load changes. It is designed so that refrigeration capability can hardly be lowered even if the vehicles inevitably come across necessity for an unstable operation. There have been records of introduction by Thermo King and Carrier of US.

The company said, “We expect them as refrigerants to control effectively global warming gas though the field of application is not under restriction.”

Regarding HFO1234yf of the main raw material, Chemours is planning to start operation of its large-scale plant of Corpus Christi, Texas in August 2018. It follows that a mass production effect will be expected. The company talked about its policy saying, “In Europe with the price-hike of HFC due to the control of F gas there appears a phenomenon that XP40 is cheaper than R404A. We intend to describe the world situation elaborately to our customers so that we can propose them to switch into the new refrigerants.”