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PROCESSING
The quest for
new, green refrigerants Amidst alternatives, CO2 is emerging as the most efficient, safe and clean refrigerant preferred by a growing number of global, regional and local retailers. 2016 is seeing a rapid increase in the number of CO 2 systems and new technologies to make the climate-friendly refrigerant an attractive solution.
T
he last couple of years have seen difficulties for decision-makers in food retail to make a final choice when it comes to refrigerants and system type. Many refrigerant options and system configurations have been battling to receive attention. Supermarket refrigeration has been in the environmental spotlight and it has been revealed how leakage of HFCs in centralised systems is a major challenge. At the same time, energy efficiency has gained top priority in order to save costs and reduce the carbon footprint. From this disarray, CO2 is emerging as one of the most efficient, safe and clean refrigerants for food retail. In 2015 alone, producer of cooling components Danfoss has seen an increase of more than 20% in the installed base of transcritical CO2 systems in supermarkets compared to the year before. Driven by the F-gas regulation in Europe and the SNAP regulation in the US, the installation of CO2 systems is expected to accelerate in 2016 and 2017 led by major, global retailers. 54
July/August 2016
The market is ready for this huge transformation in food retail refrigeration and the required technical solutions are in place. For the last 15 years, Danfoss and other refrigeration specialists have pioneered technologies for transcritical refrigeration, and today a complete and well-tested product portfolio is available for climate-friendly and energy-efficient solutions.
Heat reclaim is trending in food retail refrigeration 2016 will see a continued growing interest in transcritical CO2 systems with heat reclaim. The smart solution is fast becoming standard, and 20 years from now, people will look back and wonder at the huge amounts of surplus heat that is today wasted from the cooling systems of supermarkets. Despite the impressive number of transcritical solutions with heat reclaim installed by now — mostly in colder climates — we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. The installations have all confirmed that the refrigeration system
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