CO₂ in the US food retail - Getting off the starting blocks

Under the GreenChill Partnership, the US Environmental Protection Agency is preparing for a shift of thinking among food retailers. With webinars, a best practices guideline, certification awards, and cost analysis for CO₂ systems it will support their uptake over the coming three months alone. First R744 systems have meanwhile appeared in several food chains across the country.

The voluntary GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership as an alliance of the US EPA with the supermarket industry is responding to calls from the natural refrigerants industry to better research the technical and environmental benefits arising from a wider uptake of low-global warming natural fluids. Keilly Witman, Leader of the GreenChill Partnership, confirmed towards R744.com that already for the first three months of the year a series of actions is planned to further promote CO₂ refrigeration in the US. The EPA agenda for the first quarter foresees:

• Award: The first CO₂ cascade system will gain GreenChill's Gold-Level Store Certification award. It’s a Hill Phoenix system in the Food Lion Columbia supermarket in South Carolina.

• Webinar Atmosphere 2009: GreenChill will hold a webinar to debrief supermarket partners on the international conference on natural refrigerants “Atmosphere 2009” held last October in Brussels with information and resources gathered by EPA delegates on site.

• R744 webinar: The EPA is right now developing a 2010 webinar schedule to most likely integrate educational sessions on CO₂ possibilities in supermarkets as well as benefits from other natural refrigerants. 

• Guideline: Witman confirmed that an Advanced Refrigeration Best Practices Guideline for Supermarkets that will take CO₂ refrigeration in consideration is already under development.

• Tracking System: GreenChill is also developing a tracking system for its systems manufacturing partners to track the number of advanced refrigeration systems they manufacture and to set goals for them to convert more stores from centralized DX to advanced refrigeration.

• CO₂ Lifecycle cost analysis: The Food Lion CO₂ cascade systems will be included in GreenChill's Advanced Refrigeration Lifecycle Cost Analysis.

CO₂ systems already running in the US

As the first supermarket in the US the Star Market store Massachusetts receives the EPA’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award for its advanced CO₂ refrigeration system. The employed system using Glycol heat-exchange fluid for the cooler cases and a CO₂ heat-exchange fluid for the colder freezer cases achieves a reduction in refrigerant charge of 85%.

Food Lion installed its first two CO₂ cascade systems already in 2006 and 2008. Designer and Manufacturer Hill Phoenix has provided both systems. In October 2009 the company followed the CO₂ trend with a system, which will cater for both low temperature and medium temperature showcases. The installation were designed by US based company Kysor Warren.

Moreover, the medium-size retail chain Price Chopper Supermarkets has installed a CO₂ cascade system for low-temperature refrigeration designed by Hill Phoenix in its frozen food and ice cream department in the state of New York.

After having joined the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership in January 2009, California-based food retailer Raley’s opened its open its greenest store that employs glycol coolants and CO₂ as secondary coolants in Petaluma, California. The retailer was certified for the green refrigeration technology installed in the new store.

History of CO₂ supermarket installations in North America

According to a paper from ASHRAE member David Hinde, the first laboratory testing of low-temperature CO₂ secondary systems was initiated in 2001. After extensive investigation of the system operation, display-case and unit-cooler performance, and various piping configurations and control methods, the first U.S. system was installed in the field in mid-2006.
By the end of 2008, nine low-temperature carbon dioxide systems were operational in the U.S. and Canada. All systems used CO₂ as a low-temperature two-phase secondary fluid with stores ranging in size from small markets to large supercenters and warehouse-style stores, and with system loads ranging from 22 to 160 kW (75 to 550 kBtu/h).