Six of the world’s leading consumer brands have met to discuss latest progress in using natural refrigerants in point-of-sale cooling applications. All agreed that CO2, hydrocarbons & Co. would be the way forward, calling on others to join their efforts.
The event Monday evening brought together representatives from some of the world’s most renowned retail and consumer brands, united in the “Refrigerants, Naturally!” (RN) initiative. During the workshop, held within the framework of the Gustav Lorentzen Conference, The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), PepsiCo, McDonalds, IKEA, Unilever, and Carlsberg reconfirmed their commitment to promote natural refrigerants. More than 100 participants attended the highly popular event summarizing the technical and commercial state of play in the field of non-HFCs cooling technologies.
Chairing the session, John Gummer, former UK Environment Secretary, highlighted the power of sustainable partnership between business, NGOs and the United Nations, demonstrated in the RN project: "Looking back 5 years, only few cared about refrigeration as a major source of greenhouse gas emission. Today, nobody would question climate change and the role the retail industry needs to play. The Refrigerant, Naturally! project has been a successful example of how refrigeration could be made interesting to the general public", he said.
Concerning the choice of refrigerant to avoid to leakage, Gummer stated that "it is always better to have the safer option in your system", showing its support for CO
2 over HFCs.
The Presentations
Following a welcome address and Gummer’s keynote speech, all RN members and the two official sponsors Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provided an outlook on the future of natural refrigerants in the retail industry:
UNEP: Rajendra Shende, head of the OzonAction branch of UNEP, confirmed that the RN project has proved a success with all members still actively committed to its original targets. Being in a “constant revolution”, the refrigeration industry would now have to work on a further improvement of natural refrigerants’ energy efficiency. Most importantly, Shende warned that if current industry trends continue, HFCs’ overall contribution to global warming pollution could increase from 1.5% today to up to over 8% by 2050. F-gases could thus do as much environmental harm as all passenger cars combined today. He insisted that applying the role model of sustainable business initiatives, such as Refrigerants, Naturally!, also to other industries would be key in preventing a further increase in HFC concentrations.
Greenpeace: Alternatives to HFCs with proven energy efficiency are already available today, and “the time to shift away from F-gases has come”, Paula Tejon from Greenpeace stated. In 2009, the green NGO will therefore focus on the elimination of all HFCs, working with regulatory bodies, driving media campaigns, and helping to bring companies working with natural refrigerants together. Greenpeace’s campaign will target specifically China and the USA.
The Coca-Cola Company: Reporting on recent progress in applying HFC-free technologies for cold drink equipment, TCCC confirmed that by end-2008, it will have a total of 40,000 CO
2 coolers running. An additional 70,000 R744 units are planned for 2009-10. Latest comparisons between CO
2 and R134a have shown that at 40.6°C and 75% relative humidity, CO2 is 24% more efficient than the chemical. For the 14,000 CO2 units already in service, refrigeration failures have been well below current standards for R134a, being moreover limited primarily to quality issues or peripheral devices, not the CO
2 circuit.
PepsiCo: Michel Saba, also reported on positive proges on behalf of PepsiCo. Since joining the initiative in 2006, the beverage company has developed CO
2 and hydrocarbons in counter top, single door and open air coolers, as well as vending machines. Field tests have shown that CO
2 achieves higher energy efficiency and capacity levels than R134a units while using smaller compressors. So far, no technical problem has been recorded, making the use of natural refrigerants a purely “commercial issue” now. Before deciding about next steps, PepsiCo will field test 3000+ units for CO
2 and hydrocarbons in 2009.
Interestingly, when R744.com spoke with participants after the event, there was a feeling that PepsiCo is progressing faster in their development of natural refrigerants than competitor Coca-Cola.
McDonalds / IKEA: The food chain McDonalds, having tested R744 in its restaurants already some years ago, confirmed that it is now “looking mainly at CO
2”. IKEA, still in the development stage, will focus on CO
2 and ammonia as the two main solutions for its retail business.
About Refrigerants, Naturally!
The Refrigerants, Naturally! Initiative was founded by TCCC, McDonalds, and Unilever in 2004. Two years later, Carlsberg, IKEA and PepsiCo joined the project to promote a shift in the point-of-sale technology towards natural refrigerants, to develop timetables to progressively replace fluorocarbons (CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs), and share technical information.
