China's CFC-free foaming technology sold for 500m yuan

JINAN - A Chinese new material firm has spent 500 million yuan ($72 million) to buy exclusive rights to a new climate-friendly technology to produce foaming agent, which is widely used in refrigeration and building materials.

Such a high price has rarely been seen in sales of research findings in China.

The technology was independently developed by a research team with Shandong University of Technology and has been appraised by the State Intellectual Property Office as a "revolutionary discovery" to produce polyurethane foam agent free of CFCs, which are harmful to the ozone layer and a source of greenhouse gas.

The CFC-free foaming agent has also been certified by the American Chemical Society as a new material.

The Linzi Butian New Material Technology firm based in Linzi city, eastern China's Shandong province, bought exclusive rights to the technology for 20 years.

The new technology has also driven Linzi city government to make polyurethane foam agent production a key industry, eyeing annual output of 100,000 tons.

Han Baole, deputy secretary general of the China Polyurethane Industry Association, said the global industry had been looking for substitutes to CFCs in the making of polyurethane products, as 1 ton of CFC yields 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide during production.

"The global demand for polyurethane foam agent is about 5.7 million tons a year, as it is widely needed in making products ranging from household necessities such as sofas, mattresses, car seats and refrigerators, to building materials such as heating pipelines, external wall insulation and decoration materials," he said.

"The commercialization of the new tech is significant to China's pledge in addressing global climate change," Han said.

China pledged in 2015 to cut its carbon emissions by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.