Analysis of the development status and market prospects of China’s low-GMP refrigerants in 2023

Refrigerant is a substance that achieves the refrigeration effect. It absorbs and releases heat through phase changes inside the refrigerator and continuously circulates. With the tightening of environmental protection requirements and the continuous development of technology, refrigerant products are currently developing towards low GWP. Refrigerants have now developed into the fourth generation of products. The first generation is mainly chlorofluorocarbons. Due to serious damage to the ozone layer, it has been eliminated and banned from production globally. The second generation is hydrochlorofluorocarbons. Due to serious damage to the ozone layer, developed countries have Basically phased out; the third generation is hydrofluorocarbon products, which have little impact on the ozone layer, but have a large greenhouse effect, and are already in the early stages of elimination; the fourth generation is mainly hydrofluoroolefins, which are environmentally friendly products, but have poorer refrigeration effects than Chiyo products.

The “2023-2027 China Low GMP Refrigerant Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report compiled and released by the Industrial Research Center shows , China is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of third-generation refrigerants. Under the influence of the “Kigali Amendment”, China has designated a reduction plan for third-generation refrigerants based on the production of HFCs in 2020-2022. It will serve as the basis for the subsequent formulation of HFCs production quotas for refrigerant companies, and production will begin to be managed based on quotas starting in 2024. With the gradual introduction of second- and third-generation refrigerants, the fourth-generation refrigerant product market has great potential for development. The fourth generation refrigerant is a low-GMP refrigerant and has entered commercial production and application. The industrialized products mainly include HFO-1234yf, HFO-1234ze, HCFO-1233zd, and HFO-1336mzz.

The market demand for refrigerant products is large. Among them, the air-conditioning field is the main downstream demand area for refrigerants, with a high market share. China is the world’s largest air-conditioning producer, and the number of air-conditioning units continues to grow. It is affected by air-conditioning replacement demand, rural consumer demand, etc. Affected by factors, the demand for refrigerants in China’s air-conditioning field is still guaranteed. In addition, the demand for refrigerants in refrigerators and automobile air conditioners also has strong support.

However, the widespread application of low-GMP refrigerant products still faces certain difficulties. First of all, in terms of product price, the product price of low-GMP refrigerant products (such as HFO-1234yf, HFO-1234ze) is much higher than that of third-generation products, and the usage cost for downstream users High; secondly, product technical barriers are high, mainly due to patent barriers. There are a large number of HFO patents in the world. Most of the core patents of preparation and application technologies are in the hands of foreign companies. Chinese companies are technically limited by low-GMP refrigerant products. Patent barriers are severely restrictive, posing serious constraints on the development and application of low-GMP refrigerant products in China.

Currently, the world’s major low-GMP refrigerant product manufacturers include Sanaifu, Honeywell, Chemours, AGC, Juhua, Huaan and other companies. Juhua is the largest refrigerant manufacturer in China. It has started the reconstruction and expansion of third-generation refrigerant devices in 2016. It has two sets of mainstream fourth-generation fluorine refrigerant product devices with an annual production capacity of 8,000 tons.