Arkema, a global chemical player, recently announced the creation of two joint ventures in partnership with Daikin, a global leader in the manufacture of commercial and industrial air conditioning systems.

One is Arkema Daikin Fluorochemicals Co. Ltd, a 60% Arkema and 40% Daikin joint venture, which is to focus on the production and marketing of HFC-125 on a plant to be located on Arkema’s Changshu site, reveals the company’s press release. This world-scale plant, the first of this size in Asia, is scheduled to come on stream in 2010.

Together with HFC-32, HFC-125 is an essential component of new generation refrigerant blends, which include the R-410A blend due to replace HCFC-22. Pierre Chanoine, Group President of Arkema’s Fluorochemicals Business Unit, comments: "This new HFC-125 production plant will enable us to fulfill increasing demand from the Asian market and to assist our customers in switching over to new generation blends."  

---