US YF PLANT

CHEMOURS has broken ground on its new R1234yf production plantwithin its Corpus Christi facility at Ingleside, Texas.

The new factory will triple the company’s global production capacity for the low global warming potential  automotive refrigerant and products on which it is based.

Announcing the start of construction, Chemours president and CEO Mark Vergnano estimated that more than 50 million cars using R1234yf will be on the world’s roads by the end of 2017.

“We’ve already seen tremendous adoption of our Opteon low GWP refrigerants,” he said.

Chemours claims the new site will become the world’s largest production facility for hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), with a future product pipeline including foam-blowing agents plus refrigerants for stationary air conditioning and waste heat recovery.

“Our market projections also suggest that our Opteon refrigerants could be used in well over 10,000 supermarket and commercial refrigeration systems by 2020,” said Mr Vergnano.