Refrigerants

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Trends in supermarkets can often provide insights into changes to come for the rest of the commercial refrigeration world, and — as is the case industry-wide — refrigerants are on the minds of many in the supermarket sector.

The following is excerpted from “Case Study: Transcritical Carbon Dioxide Supermarket Refrigeration Systems,” which was prepared by Navigant Consulting Inc. for the Better Buildings Alliance; Building Technologies Office; and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

A model supermarket, complete with refrigerated display cases, dry goods shelves, and point-of-sale terminals is under construction by Emerson Climate Technologies as one of five research areas within The Helix innovation center on the University of Dayton campus.

It’s looking more likely that there will be a global agreement to phase down HFCs, and it could come as early as this year or possibly next; either way, it’s coming. 

The 2015 FMI Energy and Store Development conference will be held Sept. 27-30 at the Sheraton San Diego in San Diego, California. The conference provides an opportunity to network with leaders in the food-retail industry about energy efficiency and refrigeration, as well as store design and merchandising.

Chemours announced that two new Opteon™ refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP) are now commercially available in the United States. The company said these are the first in a portfolio of low-GWP stationary refrigerants that it will introduce to the U.S. in the next few years.

The global refrigerants market is forecast to reach $21 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6 percent from 2015 to 2020, according to a report published by MarketsandMarkets.

The increasing number of refrigerant options makes it more essential than ever for technicians to be aware of the hazards of mixing refrigerants and to cautiously approach systems they’re servicing in case it contains a refrigerant mixture that has been adulterated — perhaps dangerously so.

A Chicopee, Massachusetts, cold storage warehouse that utilizes ammonia refrigeration is spending more than half a million dollars, primarily on public safety enhancements, to resolve claims it violated the federal Clean Air Act’s chemical release prevention requirements in its handling of ammonia at the facility.

Trane, a brand of Ingersoll Rand, is presenting an air-cooled demonstration chiller using the new next-generation, low-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant DR-55 at the International Institute of Refrigeration’s (IIR’s) International Congress of Refrigeration.