Honeywell’s new LBA – Solstice achieves growing global commercial success

Several system houses in the US have been working on new systems containing the product, either as 100% blowing agent or as part of a blend. In the appliance market, Whirlpool in the US already use Solstice and the major Chinese appliance manufacturer, Midea has also converted lines to use the new blowing agent, more manufacturers are expected to follow.

Solstice is making great strides in gaining acceptance in the Japanese polyurethane market. Honeywell commercialised Solstice in Japan during Q2, 2013 and has already achieved great success with multiple systems houses in various stages of launching commercial systems based on the product.  Solstice is being used to replace water and other HCFC blowing agents in a number of products across the country.

Post Fukushima, there's a great focus on how the country will source its energy needs and a growing demand amongst consumers for more effective insulation .Energy prices have increased in Japan, making the payback time for insulation much shorter. Spray polyurethane foam is well positioned to meet these demands. There are new energy efficiency standards and HSE regulations being prepared which will also act as drivers for the insulation industry.

The Japanese are more environmentally conscious and still use water blown foams but these are not very effective as insulation material so there has been a lot of interest in the zero GWP and high K values achieved using Solistice. There are several Japanese spray foam manufacturers close to commercialising products using 100% Solistice as the blowing agent, while for other applications blends are more popular as a means to balance cost and performance.

Nippon Aqua is the SPF market leader in Japan, with business operations in over 30 locations across the country, and is a subsidiary of leading residential home builder Hinokiya Holdings. Honeywell now supplies Solstice to this company for use into its systems.

“We expect to experience a significant increase in demand for commercial volumes of Solstice starting early in 2014 from customers in the US, China and Japan. Customers are finding the product offers the most cost effective way to achieve new GWP targets and insulation performance. We have a large plant coming on stream to meet this new demand, but we can already supply commercial quantities through our global supply chain,” explained Rastogi.