Honeywell’s Breakthrough Solstice® Liquid Blowing Agent Named Finalist For Innovation Award
MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. – September 22, 2015 — Honeywell announced that its new Solstice® Liquid Blowing Agent (LBA) has been named a finalist for the Polyurethane Innovation Award, sponsored by the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
Solstice LBA is being adopted globally as a polyurethane foam blowing agent in insulation applications, such as appliances, spray foam and insulated metal panels, enabling customers worldwide to cost-effectively reach higher energy standards.
“Solstice LBA is a breakthrough innovation that will help the world dramatically reduce its climate impact, improve energy efficiency and costs, create jobs, and do so safely,” said Sanjeev Rastogi, business director for Honeywell Fluorine Products. “Widespread adoption of Solstice LBA in the U.S. alone will result in a reduction of more than 25 million metric tons per year of CO2-equivalent; globally this number could exceed 90 million metric tons. This is equivalent to taking 19 million cars off the road or shutting down 23 coal-fired plants for one year.”
CPI’s Polyurethane Innovation Award program highlights the role that innovation plays in the polyurethane industry and recognizes companies and individuals whose vision and perseverance bring new products, technologies and initiatives to the marketplace.
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“This year, the crop of submissions for the Innovation Award showcased the best of our industry, and our organization is proud to honor products like Solstice® Liquid Blowing Agent, that use polyurethane chemistry to help improve energy efficiency,” said Lee Salamone, senior director, CPI. This year’s Innovation Award will be presented at the 2015 Polyurethanes Technical Conference in Orlando, Florida, October 7.
Leading appliance companies such as Whirlpool in U.S. and the top three Chinese appliance OEMs (Midea, Hisense and Haier), as well as spray foam insulation producers (Lapolla, Henry, Elastochem) and panel producers (CIMC, Kingspan) are adopting Solstice LBA to meet customer demand and comply with evolving climate and energy efficiency regulations.
Global regulators are increasingly moving to phase out high-global-warming foam blowing agents and, on July 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published landmark regulations that will phase out the use of high-global-warming potential hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) blowing agents in certain applications. The new regulation, part of which is effective January 2017, will require manufacturers to discontinue use of many standard HFC blowing agents and blends in certain applications.
Based on hydrofluoro-olefin (HFO) technology pioneered by Honeywell, Solstice LBA has a global warming potential (GWP) of 1, 99.9% lower than the HFC blowing agents it replaces and equal to carbon dioxide. It is a near drop-in replacement for other liquid foam blowing agents, and is non-ozone-depleting and nonflammable, making it a cost-effective choice. Solstice LBA has received U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program, and is Volatile Organic Compound (VOC)-exempt per EPA.
Honeywell also manufactures Solstice Gas Blowing Agent, which replaces HFC-134a as a foam blowing agent in insulation for commercial appliances and board insulation for homes and buildings.
Solstice products are commercially available from Honeywell’s Fluorine Products business, a leader in the manufacture and supply of non-ozone-depleting refrigerants used by top air-conditioning and refrigeration makers worldwide, as well as hydrofluoric acid and precursors for nuclear fuel.
About Honeywell: Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT) is a global leader in developing advanced materials, process technologies and automation solutions. PMT’s Advanced Materials businesses manufacture a wide variety of high-performance products, including environmentally friendlier refrigerants and materials used to manufacture end products such as bullet-resistant armor, nylon, computer chips and pharmaceutical packaging. Process technologies developed by PMT’s UOP business (www.uop.com) form the foundation for most of the world’s refiners, efficiently producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, petrochemicals and renewable fuels. PMT’s Process Solutions business (www.honeywellprocess.com) is a pioneer in automation control, instrumentation and services for the oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, industrial power generation, chemicals and petrochemicals, biofuels, life sciences, and metals, minerals and mining industries.
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywellnow.com.
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