DuPont Fluorochemicals Continues Leadership to Address Climate Change

WILMINGTON, Del., Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- DuPont Fluorochemicals (DuPont) today announced the introduction of three new refrigerants in its more sustainable DuPont™ Opteon® family.  These refrigerants have far lower global warming potential (GWP) than the products they are designed to replace and will enable compliance with a growing number of regulations that limit the use of high-GWP refrigerants.

To enable regulatory compliance, DuPont has developed a full portfolio of low-GWP, high-performance refrigerants for a wide variety of applications. The new Opteon® family is based on hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) technology and includes more than a dozen products that are in development or already commercialized. 

DuPont is introducing three new low GWP products for commercial refrigeration under the names Opteon® XP40, Opteon® XP44 and Opteon® XP10.  Opteon® XP40 is a flagship refrigerant that can effectively replace the refrigerant R-404A, which has one of the highest GWPs of the common HFCs and is extensively used in commercial refrigeration. In addition to providing more than 60 percent reduction in GWP, extensive testing has shown that Opteon® XP40 delivers superior energy efficiency compared with R-404A.

Opteon® XP44 is a lower GWP replacement for the refrigerant R-404A and has been designed specifically to meet the demanding operating conditions of transport refrigeration. Opteon® XP10 is a lower GWP replacement for R-134a for refrigeration and other applications.

DuPont has additional Opteon® products in its pipeline, including high-performance fluids for targeted applications such as chillers, high-temperature heat pumps and organic rankine cycles.  The entire Opteon® family offers properties and performance that are close to the incumbent HFCs to allow a smooth and efficient transition to more sustainable products.

"We anticipate that our new family of products will reduce greenhouse gas content of refrigerants by some 245 million tons CO₂ equivalent worldwide by 2025," said Thierry F.J. Vanlancker, president, DuPont Chemicals & Fluoroproducts. "The new Opteon® refrigerants enable the industry to meet regulatory demands without giving up efficient, safe and cost-effective refrigeration and air conditioning."

A number of regulatory drivers are demanding a transition away from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) toward alternatives with much lower global warming potential.  The European Union has passed regulations that drive this transition in commercial refrigeration and air conditioning as well as in automotive air conditioning.  This summer the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules to limit the use of certain HFCs and announced a number of actions and agreements to accelerate the transition away from HFCs.  In addition to such actions by specific governmental authorities, there is growing support for an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to create a framework for global action to phase down HFCs.

"Our new products will enable the air conditioning and refrigeration industry to comply with a number of climate change regulations that have been passed or are under development," said Kathryn K. McCord, global business director, DuPont Fluorochemicals.  "We are offering solutions that not only meet new regulatory requirements, but also perform well against a range of performance, sustainability and safety criteria."

To date, DuPont has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to bring to market the most sustainable refrigerants with no ozone depletion potential and low global warming potential.  The company and its suppliers have plans to invest hundreds of millions more in the next five years to bring online additional capacity of these more sustainable, high-performance products that serve a wide range of applications.

The first Opteon® product commercialized was Opteon® YF (HFO-1234yf), which has a GWP that is 99.9 percent lower than the refrigerant it replaces. DuPont is the leading industry supplier of HFO-1234yf. The company also has announced plans for the world's first commercial facility of HFO-1336mzz, which improves energy efficiency in a wide range of refrigeration and foam additive applications.

DuPont – one of the first companies to publicly establish environmental goals more than 20 years ago – has broadened its sustainability commitments beyond internal footprint reduction to include market-driven targets for both revenue and research and development investment. The goals are tied directly to business growth, specifically to the development of safer and environmentally improved new products for key global markets.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit http://www.dupont.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:  This news release contains forward-looking statements which may be identified by their use of words like "plans," "expects," "will," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "anticipates" or other words of similar meaning.  All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the company's growth strategy, product development, regulatory approval, market position, anticipated benefits of acquisitions, outcome of contingencies, such as litigation and environmental matters, expenditures and financial results, are forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events which may not be realized.  Forward-looking statements also involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control.  Some of the important factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in any such forward-looking statements are: fluctuations in energy and raw material prices; failure to develop and market new products and optimally manage product life cycles; significant litigation and environmental matters; failure to appropriately manage process safety and product stewardship issues; changes in laws and regulations or political conditions; global economic and capital markets conditions, such as inflation, interest and currency exchange rates; business or supply disruptions; security threats, such as acts of sabotage, terrorism or war, weather events and natural disasters; ability to protect and enforce the company's intellectual property rights; successful integration of acquired businesses and separation of underperforming or non-strategic assets or businesses and successful completion of the proposed spinoff of the Performance Chemicals segment including ability to fully realize the expected benefits of the proposed spinoff .  The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements as a result of future developments or new information.

The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont™ and Opteon^® are trademarks or registered trademarks DuPont or its affiliates.

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