WILMINGTON, Del. – DuPont Fluorochemicals (DuPont) reports it has increased capacity of DuPont Opteon YF (HFO-1234yf) refrigerant to meet demand this year. The company said it continues working to establish lower-cost manufacturing to meet the long-term needs of automotive customers.
 
DuPont was the first company to offer commercial-scale manufacturing of HFO-1234yf. The company began making commercial shipments from a facility in Japan in November 2011 and from a facility in China in October 2012. Today, the company announced it has achieved its goals in Japan for expanding capacity in support of 2014 demand and that additional capacity at its China facility will be available by July 2015. The China facility will realize a further capacity expansion in 2016, according to DuPont.
 
“DuPont continues to scale-up supply of this breakthrough product and to pursue investments in large-scale and lower-cost production to enable the growing adoption of HFO-1234yf,” said Thierry F.J. Vanlancker, president, DuPont Chemicals & Fluoroproducts. “We were the first to deliver supply of HFO-1234yf and we are committed to investing further as demand grows, particularly now that industry and government bodies have re-affirmed the safety of this product.”
 
According to DuPont, Opteon YF can help significantly reduce the environmental footprint of automobiles around the world. In addition to its extremely low global warming potential, it also offers excellent operational efficiency allowing for enhanced fuel efficiency, the company states.