FORECOURT AND CONVENIENCE STORES
forefront of the forecourt
CO2 James Trant of Marstair takes a look at the use of CO2 W
ith the phase down of high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants within the F-gas regulations now well and truly upon us, the refrigeration industry as a whole is turning towards a number of lower GWP alternatives. These include: Ammonia - Ammonia systems have been used for many years and are highly efficient, however ammonia is also highly toxic, increasing cost and limiting suitable applications.
Class A1 refrigerant blends - These relatively new refrigerants such as R448A, R449A and R452A perform well against the previously most common refrigerant R404A and are not flammable. However, even though these refrigerants have a significant reduction in GWP, the reduction is not enough for the phase down requirements in the long term.
Hydrocarbon Class A3 refrigerants - These refrigerants have very low GWP values but are highly flammable and current regulations give serious restrictions to potential charge weights. This often limits these refrigerants to chillers or water cooled condensing units situated close to their refrigerated cabinets. Solutions using these refrigerants are future proof but small charge limitations can increase costs and reduce the potential efficiencies due to the extra heat exchangers required for the secondary systems.
New Class A2L refrigerants - These new refrigerants such as R454C also perform well against R404A and have large reductions in GWP, however they are mildly flammable so need to be treated differently from refrigerants with an A1 classification. Again, there are limits on charge sizes on these refrigerants
24 June 2018 in forecourts.
meaning they will suffer (all be it to a less extent) to the issues arising from the use of hydrocarbons. Another problem is that the regulations regarding their use in refrigeration are yet to be included into the manufacturers safety standard for refrigeration products BS EN 60335-2-89. This means that many of the components and units required for refrigeration are not yet available for use with these refrigerants.
CO2
- Similar to ammonia, carbon dioxide has also been used as a refrigerant for many years. It runs at much higher pressures than current Class A1 refrigerant systems and is therefore a higher cost installation. However, there are many positives to using CO2
. It can
be very efficient for refrigeration and is future proof, with the global warming potential of other refrigerants being compared with CO2
,
it therefore has a GWP of 1. The regulations for its use have been in place for a long time so components and units are readily available. Finally, it is not flammable, so there aren’t the severe charge limitations of some of the alternatives above.
In the UK, trends point to the increased use of Carbon Dioxide (CO2
) as a refrigerant which,
although used back in the 1900’s, suffered a lull in popularity as it was replaced by the cheaper CFC systems and then subsequently HFC systems after the ban on Ozone depleting refrigerants. This drop in popularity is reversing with the introduction and enforcement of the F-gas regulations and the phase down of GWP within refrigerants.
The increased use of CO2 as a refrigerant is not only limited to the UK. The number of at the
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