Du Pont Says 4 Plants to Target Ozone Erosion

WILMINGTON, Del. —  Du Pont Co. has authorized money to develop four production facilities for its line of non-ozone depleting alternatives to chloroflourocarbons.

The plants--in Corpus Christi, Texas; Louisville, Ky.; Dordrecht, the Netherlands, and Chiba, Japan--will be operational between 1992 and 1995. The company didn’t say how much their construction would cost.

Du Pont executives said the plants will be capable of producing more than 140 million pounds of hydrofluorocarbons annually--enough to supply most worldwide refrigeration needs through the end of the century.

The HCFCs would be produced for automobile air conditioners, appliances and commercial refrigeration.

“These commercial facilities would be among the first to produce world-scale quantities of non-ozone-depleting alternatives,” said Joseph Glas, director of Du Pont’s Freon Products division.

Including the $240 million that it invested through 1990, the company said, its total investment to commercialize CFC alternatives will top $1 billion.

In 1988, Du Pont announced that it would stop production of CFCs by the end of the century.

The Wilmington chemical and fibers company has 10 facilities operating or under construction for the production of hydrofluorocarbons. Later this year, three facilities will begin operation in Corpus Christi; Maitland, Ontario, and Humberside, England.

“Du Pont is working very closely with its customers during the transition, particularly since the substitutes are not drop-in replacements, and companies will have to modify and redesign equipment to use them,” Glas said.

HCFCs are expected to be able to replace 30% of current CFC uses. The alternatives have on average 95% less ozone depletion potential than CFCs.