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ASDA gets CO2 "star treatment" |
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Star Refrigeration, the UK's leading refrigeration engineering company, has completed a £3 million cooling plant mostly based on CO2 for supermarket giant ASDA. The food retailer is now calling on the whole industry to follow with "green" initiatives.
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2007-07-03
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Following a 10 month project, Star Refrigeration installed the new ammonia and carbon dioxide cascade plant at ASDA's Central Distribution Centre in Lutterworth, UK. A highly energy-efficient, reliable and robust installation was designed to ensure the efficiency of ASDA's frozen and chilled operation. Featuring an overall cooling capacity of 3.2 MW, it provides cooling to four main refrigerated chambers within the storage and distribution facility. Star’s patented computerised control system TELSTAR ensures optimum performance.
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The Lutterworth installation is the latest in a series of distribution centre projects carried out by Star Refrigeration and ASDA. So far, Star has completed CO2 cascade plants for ASDA at four UK sites. All systems are mainly charged with the natural refrigerant CO2, with a complementary ammonia charge of less than one tonne.
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The successful cooperation in the field of CO2 Technology was highlighted by Star Refrigeration sales director Rob Lamb: "Following the success of similar refrigeration plants for ASDA, this was naturally the best solution for the Lutterworth distribution centre."
ASDA urges adoption of "green" technologies
The retail industry has to put aside its "cut-throat" competitiveness and collaborate to drive sustainability, according to ASDA's Chief Operating Officer David Cheesewright. Speaking at the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit in London, Cheesewright urged retailers to jointly step up efforts to adopt more environmentally friendly solutions now: "There is a huge opportunity for the sector to cooperate."
In the past year, large retailers have launched extensive "green" initiatives to meet increasing environmental concerns by consumers. In an attempt to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the leading supermarket chains ASDA, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose had already emphasized in February that the further use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in commercial refrigeration and cooling was incompatible with concerns over climate change and upcoming legislation. As a consequence, they agreed that future investments should be directed at refrigeration systems based on natural refrigerants, such as carbon dioxide (R744).
Background
Founded in 1970, Star Refrigeration has grown to be the largest independent refrigeration engineering company in the UK, focusing on the design, manufacture and installation of refrigeration systems. The company operates in several locations throughout the UK.
ASDA, which is owned by Wal-Mart Stores, holds 16% of the grocery market in the UK. It is one of Britain's largest food retailers, operating more than 300 stores.
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More information:
 Case study ASDA - Star Refrigeration, June 2007 (76 KB)
› Read the related article "Retailers opt for natural refrigerants", 6 March 2007
› Read the related article "Tesco calls for the use of CO2 now", 6 April 2007
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