Summary: In early June 2021, the information of Zhejiang Juhua's 20,000 t/a HCFC-142b project (renovation project of 7,000 t/a HCFC-142b) was publicised.

On 1 June, 2021, Quzhou Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province revealed the environmental impact assessment information of the 20,000 t/a difluorochloroethane (HCFC-142b) project (renovation project of 7,000 t/a HCFC-142b) of Zhejiang Juhua Co., Ltd. (Zhejiang Juhua). This project is aimed to provide raw materials for Zhejiang Juhua Co., Ltd.'s electrochemical factory (Juhua electrochemical factory) to produce polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). This project, adopting liquid phase catalysis fluorination technology and using vinylidene chloride (VDC) and anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (AHF) as raw materials, will renovate the existing 13,000 t/a HCFC-142b production equipment and supporting devices of Juhua electrochemical factory. After the renovation, this equipment can add production capacity of 7,000 t/a HCFC-142b and 1,500 t/a joint product, trifluoroethane (HFC-143a). When completed, the whole project can achieve total capacity of 20,000 t/a HCFC-142b and 4,300 t/a joint product HFC-143a. The total investment of this project reaches USD3.72 million (RMB23.64 million); USD3.53 million (RMB22.41 million) is used for construction and USD193,481.41 (RMB1.23 million) is used as working capital.

In 2015, Zhejiang Juhua obtained the environmental approval for the 20,000 t/a HCFC-142b project. This project is divided into two phases and is carried out by Zhejiang Quzhou Juxin Florochemical Co., Ltd. (Juxin Florochemical). This first phase project, including capacity of 7,000 t/a HCFC-142b, was put into production by Juxin Florochemical in H2 2016. In 2018, Juhua electrochemical factory turned to be the main builder of the second phase 13,000 t/a HCFC-142b project and the environmental report of the 20,000 t/a HCFC-142b project (second phase 13,000 t/a HCFC-142b project) has been redone. So far, this project has finished environmental acceptance inspection.

Zhejiang Juhua has decided to produce HFC-143a with Juxin Florochemical's HCFC-142b equipment of the first phase project as this equipment fails to work properly at present; the remaining capacity of 7,000 t/a HCFC-142b will be transferred to Juhua electrochemical factory. In addition, Zhejiang Juhua plans to set up the 20,000 t/a difluorochloroethane (HCFC-142b) project (renovation project of 7,000 t/a HCFC-142b) because there are some problems existing in the HCFC-142b equipment.

Juhua electrochemical factory has built 460,000 t/a (new capacity of 160,000 t/a) ion-exchange membrane caustic soda technical renovation project, 14,000 t/a HCFC-141b expansion project, wet-process acetylene removal and partial relocation project, project of new fluorine-enriched refrigerant and by-product acid from hydrogen chloride, 10,000 t/a PVDF project (first phase), 20,000 t/a anhydrous calcium chloride project, newly-built hydrochloric acid storage tank project, 25,000 t/a crystal flake calcium chloride project, 80,000 t/a anhydrous calcium chloride project (first phase), and 20,000 t/a HCFC-142b (second phase project of 13,000 t/a HCFC-142b).