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Seminar explores CO2 refrigeration in hot climates |
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As climate change tops Australia's political agendas, sustainable CO2 refrigeration has sparked great interest at a specialized NRTB seminar last week. Read here about technical and industry trends driving the application of R744 transcritical systems in hot climates worldwide.
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2007-11-22
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CO2 transcritical refrigeration is sparking high interest from the retail industry in hot climate countries. This has been shown during a one-day seminar focusing on the technical challenges connected with R744 transcritical concepts compared to cascade commercial systems and other refrigerants. Industry representatives from other warm countries, including from Woolworths South Africa, expressed surprise at the high level of sophistication of Australia’s first transcritical plant installed in a supermarket.
Gathering over 60 participants from leading supermarket chains, commercial and industrial refrigeration equipment suppliers, as well as research institutes, the event more specifically identified the following trends:
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Transcritical CO2 systems a viable solution in hot climates
The event, organized by the Natural Refrigerants Transition Board (NRTB) in Adelaide, started off with a visit to Angle Vale, Australia's first supermarket equipped with a transcritical CO2 system. Sergio Girotto from the Italian engineering services company enEX involved in the project presented design and expected performance of the system that will start working end-November (see photo gallery on the left).
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The unit is the first transcritical CO2 system to be operated in the Southern Hemisphere. It has been financially supported by the Australian government to prove its reduced power consumption and better reliability. The NRTB now expects that its early operation will dispel any concerns about the viability of the system in the non-tropical regions of Australia. For this purpose, the NRTB plans to hold an open day at the facility in February, likely to be the hottest month of the year.
EU experience could accelerate use of CO2 Technology worldwide
In his keynote "New compressor solution for the refrigerant CO2", Dr. Harald Kaiser from Bock Compressors announced a new compact system designed for the use in bus and train air conditioning to be available to OEMs within the next 12 months. Providing a gripping account of the consensus on the impact and causes of global warming, Kaiser drew special attention to the achievements of Bock in Denmark where 90% of its compressors for commercial refrigeration are operating.
Talking to R744.com after the event, Kaiser was positive about the wide-spread use of CO2 refrigeration and air conditioning systems: "I talked to nearly all 70 participants and all showed a great interest in our products, but more importantly in our experiences with CO2 Technology so far." Bock now plans to install a demonstration plant in Australia and increase cooperation with local partners to address remaining technical challenges.
Brian Edwards from the New Zealand manufacturer Realcold estimated that 75% of new industrial systems in Europe are now being built with R744, predicting that by 2010 CO2 will be the industry standard in supermarkets. A key problem, the lack of industry standards covering CO2 applications, could be solved by adopting the EU standard EN378 throughout the Asia-Pacific region to achieve international consistency.
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More information:
› Find out more about Bock compressors in our Products Section
› Find out more about enEX engineering services
› NRTB website
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