Honeywell has announced today that TCL Corporation, one of China's largest manufacturers of appliances and electronics, is using Honeywell Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent (LBA) in its refrigerator insulation to increase energy efficiency and further reduce climate impact. TCL manufactures approximately 2 million refrigerators annually at its world-class appliance industrial manufacturing park in Hefei.
Chinese manufacturers produce 70 million refrigerators per year, which is more than half of all refrigerators produced globally. Many are insulated with foam made with high-global-warming-potential (high-GWP) chemicals such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Blowing agents are a critical ingredient in foam insulation used in appliances, allowing the foam to expand and enabling its excellent insulating performance, which in turn improves energy efficiency.
Blowing agent blends made with HFCs and hydrocarbons can have GWPs of more than 150. Solstice LBA has a GWP of 1, which enables TCL to export its products to Europe and meet the region's stringent F-Gas regulations.
By transitioning to Solstice LBA, which is based on next-generation hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) technology, TCL joins more than a dozen appliance manufacturers worldwide that have chosen Honeywell's ultra-low-GWP blowing agent to improve insulation performance, reduce energy use and meet changing environmental regulations.
"Solstice LBA's ultra-low-GWP provides a 4 percent improvement in energy efficiency, making it the obvious solution to meet our customers' expectations to continually reduce climate change impact," said Zhengming Cui, Chief Technology Officer, TCL.
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