Yuji have just announced the latest technological news about ODS substitutes to the world. The fifth generation ODS substitutes defined by Yuji has been industrialized at the company’s headquarter in Quanzhou, China. This series of fluorocarbon compounds has zero ODP, low GWP, and most importantly, does not atmospherically decompose and release TFA (trifluoroacetic acid), a harmful “forever chemical” known to contaminate drinking water.
This marks a significant milestone in ODS substitutes development. Our R&D team at Yuji started this journey years ago, investing countless hours in screening tens of thousands of candidate molecules. Today, we’re proud to announce that we’ve successfully scaled up production to the hundred-ton level. We’re excited about the positive impact this discovery will have on both the environment and humanity.
As is well known, although the fourth generation of ODS substitutes, hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), have the advantages of “zero ODP value and low GWP value”, they still release TFA when degraded. TFA not only poses certain hazards to the environment and human health, but also causes toxicity to aquatic organisms. According to the technical assessment reports of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), HFO-1234yf, HFO-1234ze (E), HFO-1336mzz (E/Z), and HCFO-1233zd (E) produce 100%, 2%, 4%, and 2-30% of TFA in their degradation products, respectively.
To address the international problem of TFA caused by HFOs, the R&D team of Yuji embarked on a molecular screening process years ago to find potential substances for a new generation of ODS substitutes. After calculating and evaluating the global warming potential (GWP), acute toxicity, critical temperature, flammability, stability, atmospheric degradation (without degrading into TFA) and other properties of tens of thousands of candidate molecules, the team has narrowed down the selection to a few promising materials. These primarily consist of unsaturated compounds with structures such as triple bonds, heteroatoms, cyclic olefins, and others, in contrast to the carbon-carbon double bond commonly seen in traditional HFO structures like CF3CF=.
The R&D team ultimately obtained a series of compounds. These compounds have good stability, excellent application performance, and environmental performance. Their GWP value are equivalent to those of HFO products currently used commercially, and they do not produce TFA during degradation.
Yuji is a company that has long been dedicated to the development and industrialization of environmentally friendly fluorine-containing new materials. The core R&D team has nearly 30 years of technical expertise, and has always been at the forefront of international research in high-end fluorine-containing materials such as new generation chlorofluorocarbon substitutes, semiconductor fluorine-containing electronic gases, ultra-high pressure environmentally friendly power insulation gases, and has mastered the through technology in this field from molecular design, screening and evaluation, efficient catalysts, green process, small-scale synthesis, pilot scale up to industrial production.
