Which Refrigerants, Chloromethanes and Electronic Specialty Gases Are Supplied, in Which Grades and Packing Formats

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 · HARMONY TECHNOLOGY (ZHEJIANG) CO., LTD.

Harmony Technology supplies refrigerants and chloromethanes for export markets, each quoted with its CAS and UN numbers: R134a is UN 3159, R410A moves under UN 3163 or UN 1078, R32 is UN 3252, R22 is UN 1018 and dichloromethane is UN 1593. Liquefied gases ship in pressure-rated cylinders or ISO tanks; liquid solvents in closed-head drums and UN-marked IBCs.

Two things decide what can actually be offered on an enquiry: the state of the product at ambient temperature, and the transport classification that follows from it. Both are fixed before price is discussed, because a format that the classification does not allow is not a cheaper option — it is a shipment that stops at the port.

Which grades are supplied, and under which classification?

A blend has no single CAS number; it is identified by its components, and the UN entry for a blend is not the entry for either component. R410A has no dedicated UN number at all.

† Twelve refrigerant grades and four chlorinated products are supplied. For a blend with no dedicated entry the transport document carries the generic entry (UN 1078, refrigerant gas, n.o.s., for the refrigerant blends) and the entry is confirmed for the route before booking — the same rule that gives R410A two possible entries in the table above. Where a grade is A2L, the entry is not the whole story: the class itself changes (2.1, flammable). Blend compositions are stated on the specification sheet for the grade quoted.

Three rows in that table are worth reading twice. Methyl chloride is a refrigerant-class gas, not a solvent — CAS 74-87-3, UN 1063, Class 2.1, shipped as a liquefied gas, so it travels in pressure-rated cylinders and ISO tanks and never in a drum. The A2L grades (R32, R452B, R454B, R1234yf) are Class 2.1, where the established HFC blends are Class 2.2 — same family, different hazard, different handling, and a different conversation at the equipment end. And R410A has no dedicated UN entry: the same gas is documented under UN 3163 or UN 1078 depending on the carrier and the destination rules, so the entry has to be agreed for the route rather than assumed from the product name.

The UN number and the class are two independent facts and both have to be checked per product: two substances can share a class and still have their own UN entries, and a blend can share a UN entry with unrelated gases.

Which packing format does each product allow?

Three arithmetic checks decide the unit count, and they are the same three on every order:

• Net mass is volume × density, never volume alone. A 200 L drum of dichloromethane at 1.322 kg/L filled to 95 % holds 190 L, about 251 kg net — so 20 t is about 80 drums, or 16 × 1,000 L IBCs, or one ISO tank.
• Water capacity is the denominator for a cylinder, not the contents. The same cylinder carries different net weights of different gases, because the filling ratio is set per gas.
• The container payload, not its volume, caps a dense liquid. A 20 ft dry container takes about 33 m³ but around 28,200 kg of payload, and dichloromethane reaches that payload at roughly 21,000 L — most of the space travels empty.

Electronic specialty gases

Four fluorinated gases are supplied alongside the refrigerants and chloromethanes. They are bought by substance and grade rather than by brand, so each is quoted with its CAS number and its UN entry, and the impurity limits are set by the customer’s process rather than by a catalogue.

Two of those four need a sentence of care. Hexafluoropropylene is reactive — it travels as a stabilised liquefied gas, and the receiving system has to be designed for it rather than adapted to it. And “R-41” is not tetrafluoromethane: R-41 is fluoromethane (CH₃F). A purchase order that mixes the two designations has not specified the product, and the mistake surfaces at the receiving cylinder rather than on the quotation.

These gases travel in pressure containment only: individual cylinders, cylinder bundles on a common manifold frame, Y-cylinders where the volume is higher, and ISO containers where the volume justifies the unit. Which one is right is the same question as for any liquefied gas — how much, how often, and who pays the return leg. For export shipments from China the document set is the SDS plus the producer’s dangerous-goods classification and packaging documentation; the exact set for the route is listed on the quotation rather than left to be discovered at the port.

What does the specification sheet state, and against which method?

Every order line is quoted with the parameter set the grade is held to, and each parameter carries the method it is measured by — a limit without a method cannot be checked at receipt.

For dichloromethane the parameter set differs by commercial grade — technical, solvent/industrial and pharmaceutical — and the water limit is the column that separates them: about 500 ppm, 200 ppm and 100 ppm respectively. The full column-by-column reading of a grade sheet is set out in the CAS-level specification sheet guide.

Which markets are served, and what does each one require of the buyer?

The mechanism behind those instruments — and the reason a tonne of R410A consumes more than twice the quota of a tonne of R32 — is set out in the HFC quota and F-gas mechanism guide.

One limit stated plainly. A company outside the EU cannot hold or transfer an F-gas quota; that obligation attaches inside the EU, before the goods are released for free circulation. Nothing here should be read as an undertaking that an import obligation will be resolved for the buyer. What can be supplied is the grade, the specification, the packing format and the batch documents — and a plain statement of which obligations stay at the buyer’s end.

How an enquiry becomes a documented shipment

1. Name the grade and its identity. Designation plus CAS for a single substance; components for a blend. This fixes the UN entry, the class and the packing instruction before anything else is quoted.
2. State the quantity and the packing format — cylinder, drum, IBC or ISO tank — and whether the order may be split across formats. The format is what the documents are raised for.
3. Name the destination market and the shipping window. The import instrument at the destination, and the Chinese export licence chain on the outward leg, both sit on the calendar rather than on the order date.
4. Check the offer against the classification. The UN number, class and packing group on the offer must be the ones on the product’s SDS and on the transport document — not a generic family entry.
5. Verify at receipt. Net weight equals gross minus tare; that is the one check that works without opening the package, and it is the check a mixed or re-packed load most often fails.

FAQ

Which refrigerants and chloromethanes can be supplied? Refrigerants R22 (CAS 75-45-6, UN 1018), R32 (CAS 75-10-5, UN 3252), R134a (CAS 811-97-2, UN 3159), R407C (UN 3340), R404A (UN 3337) and R410A (UN 3163 or UN 1078), and the chloromethanes dichloromethane (CAS 75-09-2, UN 1593) and chloroform (UN 1888). Each grade is quoted with its own UN number and class.

Why can a refrigerant not be shipped in an IBC or a drum? A liquefied gas is held at its own vapour pressure, so containment has to be pressure-rated. That leaves refillable cylinders and ISO tank containers. Drums and IBCs are for liquids handled at ambient pressure.

Which packing formats are used for dichloromethane? Closed-head steel drums (UN 1A1) and UN-marked IBCs; open-head drums are not pressure-rated and are not used. The 39.6 °C boiling point of DCM is what turns the packaging choice into a pressure question.

Which documents are issued with a shipment? A specification sheet, a batch COA, an SDS and GHS label set in the language required at the destination, and the transport document for the route — all carrying the same product name, CAS, UN number and net weight.

Does buying from you remove the import obligations at my end? No. Import obligations follow the buyer’s role and the destination market. Our documents support the buyer’s file; they do not transfer an obligation. Confirm the position in force for your destination with your own advisers.

What we can provide

Harmony Technology can supply the grades above from qualified Chinese producers, with the grade and CAS on the order line, the batch COA for the lot shipped, the SDS and GHS label set for the destination, the packing list with net weight per unit, and the transport documents raised for the route. Where a figure is outside our verified table we ask the producing entity for it and send it with the source named rather than fill the gap with an estimate.

Send the grade or the CAS number, the quantity, the packing format, the destination market and the shipping window. We reply with the options, the documents and a quotation.

Prepared by HARMONY TECHNOLOGY (ZHEJIANG) CO., LTD. — a trading company and a member of Hangrui Group. We source from qualified producers and distribute; we are not a manufacturer. Classification and property figures quoted here are the figures used on our own documents; for any shipment the binding figures are those on the SDS, the packaging marks and the transport documents for that route. Import obligations follow the buyer’s role and market — this is not legal or regulatory advice.

Related guides

• Dichloromethane (DCM, CAS 75-09-2): specification grades, UN packing requirements and export documentation
• Mixed loading of dangerous goods: what can share a container
• HFC quotas and the EU F-gas Regulation: the mechanism and the numbers
• HS codes and the China export licence chain for refrigerants
• Reading a COA: what the columns and the numbers mean
• R134a system compatibility and the limits of a retrofit
• Packing formats by volume, with the UN packaging code decoded character by character: cylinders, drums, IBCs and ISO tanks

Sources

• PubChem (NIH) — difluoromethane, CID 6345 (CAS 75-10-5 and identity check): https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Difluoromethane
• PubChem (NIH) — dichloromethane, CID 6344 (CAS 75-09-2; density 1.322 kg/L at 68 °F): https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/6344
• R410A safety data sheet — UN 3163, liquefied gas n.o.s., class 2.2 (Messer Canada SDS, PDF): https://www.master.ca/media/akeneo_connector/asset_files/S/D/SDS_AZ20_R410A_UN3163__MESSER__en_CA_5f3b.pdf
• Refrigerant R134a safety data sheet — UN 3159, class 2.2 (Linde/AFROX SDS, PDF): https://static.prd.echannel.linde.com/wcsstore/ZA_AFROX_Industrial_Ntl_Store/Attachment/Corporate/AFX-SDS-0060_v01_Refrigerant_R134a_Safety_Data_Sheet%28003%29%282%29tcm266-6472.pdf
• 49 CFR § 172.101 — Hazardous Materials Table (UN numbers, classes and packing groups): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/part-172/section-172.101
• 49 CFR § 178.504 — Standards for steel drums (codes 1A1, 1A2) (Cornell LII, e-CFR): https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/178.504
• UN intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) — definition and the 3,000 L capacity limit (Transport Canada): https://tc.canada.ca/en/dangerous-goods/containers/intermediate-bulk-containers-ibcs
• ISO tank container T-codes, capacity and specifications (TraceContainer technical guide): https://www.tracecontainer.com/container-types/tank-container
• Regulation (EU) 2024/573 on fluorinated greenhouse gases (EUR-Lex): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32024R0573
• EU Climate Action — F-gases in bulk (quota held by the importer or producer before release for free circulation): https://climate.ec.europa.eu/areas-action/fluorinated-greenhouse-gases/stakeholder-obligations/f-gases-bulk_en
• US EPA — HFC allowance allocation and reporting (allowance system for bulk HFCs under the AIM Act): https://www.epa.gov/hfcs/hfc-allowance-allocation-and-reporting