Honeywell's New Propellant Reduces Global Warming Impact of Aerosol Cleaners in Europe by 99 Percent

Honeywell announced that its new HFO-1234ze propellant is reducing the global-warming impact of some industrial aerosol cleaning products by up to 99.6 percent.

HFO-1234ze is being used by MicroCare, a leading manufacturer of precision cleaning, coating and lubricating products, in four of their best-selling aerosol cleaners in Europe.

“This new propellant is giving our customers the functionality they are accustomed to, but with a significantly lower environmental impact,” said Christopher Jones, president of MicroCare.

HFO-1234ze is non flammable according to European Union standards, has zero ozone-depletion potential and a GWP of six. In some aerosol applications, HFO-1234ze serves as a direct replacement for HFC-134a, which has a GWP of approximately 1,300. GWP is a measure of a gas’s contribution to global warming. It is a relative scale that compares the gas in question to carbon dioxide, which has a GWP of one.

“Our new low-global-warming potential propellant can be used as a drop-in for current gases like HFC-134a, achieving similar functionality with superior environmental properties,” said Bjorn Hofman, director of new product innovation for Honeywell’s Fluorine Products business. “It offers European customers an environmentally-preferable alternative to products containing higher global warming potential (GWP) propellants and is another example of how our low-GWP platform is meeting the needs our global customers in a variety of end-use applications.”

Honeywell is recognized as a leading innovator in the development of high performance, low GWP products for applications such as automotive air conditioning systems, aerosols propellants and blowing agents for polyurethane and extruded polystyrene insulation foams. Last year the company announced another low-GWP product, HFO-1234yf, as a replacement for R-134a in automotive air conditioning systems, and earlier this year announced a third low-GWP candidate for energy-efficient polyurethane foam insulation.