AGC announces new 1224yd refrigerant

JAPAN: Asahi Glass (AGC), a leading Japanese manufacturer of glass and chemicals has announced the development of a further low GWP refrigerant, 1224yd(Z).

Described by AGC as non-flammable, 1224yd(Z) is said to have been designed for use in centrifugal chillers, binary cycle generators, and waste heat recovery heat pumps. AGC claims it has superior energy-saving performance to existing products in the market and can be retrofitted into existing facilities without large investments.

While little is known of this new refrigerant, it is the subject of a number of manufacturing and usage patents. Although of the HFO family, 1224yd(Z) is actually an HCFO, like another new gas 1233zd which is already being used in latest generation chillers. With a GWP of 1, it has been branded by AGC as Amolea yd.

AGC is to present details of the new refrigerant and its performance at next week’s HVAC&R Expo in Tokyo.

Already supplying R1234yf to Honeywell, and an established manufacturer and supplier of traditional refrigerants, in 2014 AGC announced the development of a blend based on HFO1123 as a replacement for R410A. Promoted as a potential future rival to R32 in air conditioning, AGC said 1123 had a GWP around half that of R32 and with equivalent performance to R410A. Although little has been heard of this gas of late, commercial production was due to start this year.

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