replacing HFCs with natural refrigerants worldwide today

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Natural refrigerant refrigeration technology has recently been implemented in supermarkets located in Turkey, Brazil and South Africa, confirming the viability of natural refrigerants under different climatic conditions and the readiness of developing countries to avoid f-gases and adopt natural refrigerants instead.

Non-industrlalised countries have the great opportunity to leapfrog the temporary solution of replacing ozone depleting hydrofluorochlorocarbons (HCFCs) with global warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and move directly to natural refrigerants such as CO₂, ammonia and hydrocarbons which have zero ozone depletion potential and close to zero global warming potential. Some such examples are starting to appear, including in supermarket applications.

The first subcritical CO₂ installation in Turkey

A Carrefour retail store in Istanbul, Turkey features a new CO₂ cascade refrigeration system that has been chosen to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The cascade system supplies the medium temperature (MT) refrigeration units and the CO₂ condenser with R404a and the low temperature (LT) units with CO₂ (R744). The installation also features energy saving measures, such as heat recovery on the compressor rack and a smart/skip defrost function.

Brazilian CO₂ supermarket, a South American premiere

Brazilian retailer Verdemar opened in April 2010 a 6,000 m2 store in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, featuring a CO₂ cascade refrigeration system. The store is forecasted to slash one fifth off its energy consumption in comparison with other Verdemar stores with the same cooling capacity using HCFC 22. The retailer is preparing to open a CO₂ food distribution centre later this year.

Natural refrigerant supermarkets in South Africa

Already at the end of 2009, Woolworths South Africa pioneered a CO₂ supermarket refrigeration system in one of its stores. Besides eliminating the problem of ozone depletion, the system has shown highly promising results regarding energy consumption: “Early indications are that our new refrigeration system also uses less energy. Very few refrigeration systems in the world can offer these benefits”, said Alex Kuzma, Engineering Manager for Woolworths.

Subsequently, South African supermarket chain Pick'n Pay has replaced the HCFC-22 refrigeration systems in two of its supermarket stores to cascade systems using natural refrigerants only.