The Chemours Company announced the startup of the new Opteon low global-warming-potential refrigerant production facility at its Corpus Christi manufacturing plant in Ingleside, TX.
Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington.
The facility will enable Chemours to triple the global capacity of its hydrofluoroolefin 1234yf-based products to meet increasing market demands for more environmentally friendly refrigerants and blends.
“The startup completes the final phase of the $300 million project we started in 2016, which triples supply capacity of Opteon YF across multiple industries and applications,” said Mark Vergnano, Chemours CEO. “This milestone is a tangible example of our steadfast commitment to providing the world with low GWP refrigerant products that are better for the environment.”
The Opteon production facility is the largest such facility in the world.
It comes at a time when the world is transitioning to the next generation of refrigerants.
Opteon YF refrigerant is used in automotive air conditioning. This helps lower the greenhouse gas footprint for motor vehicles and is a significant path to meeting environmental global-warming regulations around the world, a release staetd.
The expanded capacity will also enable Chemours to meet the growing need for next-generation refrigerants in stationary air conditioning, refrigeration, and chillers.
According to Paul Kirsch, president of Chemours Fluoroproducts: “Our U.S. facility reinforces our commitment to meet the needs of our mobile and stationary refrigerant customers through unmatched capacity, capability, and quality. This also means our production facilities will be closer to our customers in North America and Europe, as well as around the world.”
The investment to build world-scale manufacturing capability has resulted in hundreds of U.S. jobs ranging from R&D, manufacturing, construction support, and associated businesses that supply the new manufacturing plant. Chemours is building a new research center on the University of Delaware STAR Campus in Newark.
The Corpus Christi site uses a patented process to manufacture Opteon YF for automotive air conditioning and refrigerant blends.
