Moscow -- The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering tightening the environmental rules affecting its polyurethane sector.
By 2030, Russia plans to completely stop using hydrofluorochlorocarbons (HCFC), including HFC-141b and some others, in domestic PU.
Russian experts say that the regulations are already tightening. Larisa Luchkina, president of the Russian Union of Producers and Consumers of Environmentally-Friendly Polyurethane Foam Products said that in 2017 the country was only allowed to use 5,000 tonne HCFC-22 and 1,130 tonne HCFC-141b, and she added that in 2018 these quotas could be revised downwards, but details are not available.
In 2016, the quota for HCFC-141b in Russia was 2.175 tonne but 2.065 tonne were used, according to data from the Russian Federal Customs Service by Dow Izolan and Marcon-Kholod. Company representatives were not available for comment.
The Customs Service was unable to give the names of companies which had been supplied in 2017.
Luchkina also said Russian producers have been steadily moving to components which are not banned by the Montreal Protocol such as Paiparol, produced and used locally by MosFlowline, which uses around 7000 Tonne/year of PU in insulated PU pipelines in Russia and CIS countries.
