Germany takes lead to support CO₂ refrigeration

In a study published late 2008 and now available as an English version, the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) provides a thorough assessment of the climate impact of supermarket refrigeration in Germany and Europe. The UBA is urging the industry to adopt CO₂ as the most climate-friendly of all technologies now.

Supermarket refrigeration systems that contain natural halogen-free refrigerants are the most climate-friendly of all technologies currently available. This is a main finding from the “Comparative assessment of the climate relevance of supermarket refrigeration systems and equipment” research project carried out on behalf of Germany’s Federal Environment Agency UBA. The 270-pages concluding document, now available as an English language version, predicts that although prices for natural refrigerants installations might still be higher in some cases, theses costs would decrease considerably in the near future as mass production increases. Data for various scenarios and selected model technologies was based on input from a large pool of experts, including renowned research institutes, universities and environmental consultancies.

The trend towards using CO₂ will also be helped by higher tightness standards for conventional HFC systems, making the latter more expensive by the day, the UBA concludes. Innovative and energy-efficient refrigeration systems using natural working fluids would already be available on the market with their performance and economy comparable to current systems.

Urgent action needed

In 2006, the commercial refrigeration sector alone accounted for 3.4 million tonnes of emissions in CO₂ equivalents – close to 35% of total HFC emissions in Germany. Refrigeration systems are only renewed once every 14 years in a country where supermarket refrigeration remains the last big subsector and strongest emission source of F-gases in Germany. Given also the constraints the EU F-gas regulation will be putting on the refrigeration industry, the UBA calls on retailers to voluntarily commit to testing and later using R744 and other natural refrigerants as a standard solution.

The report

In its first part “Market Summary - Model Technologies”, the study offers a comprehensive overview of HFC-free refrigeration systems and equipment for supermarkets offered in Germany and the EU. Different refrigerants and technologies are presented, as well as the issue of refrigerant losses and challenges regarding the refurbishment of existing stores. Currently, there are more than eight different CO₂-x combinations used across the EU which makes the choice of R744 cascade systems a complex issue. Preferences vary largely for different regions.

Part II then draws final conclusions about the energy efficiency and economics of HFC-free technologies in comparison to conventional systems based on the Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) calculations.

In its final part, the UBA study explores technical, economic, and structural barriers for the wide-spread adoption of natural refrigerants. Obstacles preventing the use of R744 multi compressor systems for supermarkets are presented as well as recommendations given for potential subsidies helping HFC-free refrigeration systems to become an established solution on the German market.

Coming next

In a second article, R744.com will provide you with latest details from the financial incentive scheme drawn up by the Federal Environment Ministry to support the use of CO₂. The scheme, only running for a few months, proves to be beneficial to retailers as well as system manufacturers.