Australian conference highlights CO₂ refrigeration

With hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) coming under growing pressure in Europe, the rules of the game for systems manufacturers worldwide have changed. While in the past designers were in no way restricted to put any refrigerant into supermarket refrigeration systems, they now have to comply with customers’ demand for more efficient solutions which at the same time are future-proof against upcoming regulation of HFCs. Given this "global revolution", CO₂ (R744) Technology appears as a long term solution for the refrigeration industry worldwide, as CO₂ cascade and CO₂ only systems in supermarkets are expected to deliver the greatest reductions in energy consumption compared to current systems using R404a.

This was a key conclusion by European and Australian experts at the supermarket refrigeration conference on 7-8 June in Sydney, Australia, who urged the industry to move quickly to adopt natural refrigerants as the only sustainable option for the future.

The event, organized by the Australian Natural Refrigerants Transition Board (NRTB), gathered nearly 100 participants from Australia, New Zealand and across the Asia Pacific region to discuss the development and implementation of natural refrigerants in commercial refrigeration. In addition to providing technical information on modular secondary refrigerant concepts and transcritical CO₂ systems, experts discussed upcoming environmental labeling standards. Among the speakers: Sergio Girotto from Enex – an Italian engineering company soon joining R744.com’s Engineering Services section. Australia introduces ecolabeling for the RAC industry In a joint initiative, the NRTB and "Good Environmental Choice Australia" (GECA) have developed and implemented ecolabeling standards for the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (RAC) industry starting with supermarkets and moving on to other sectors. The new standard will provide an independent and credible means to assess, certify and enable supermarkets to promote their environmentally superior refrigeration systems, and will assist suppliers and end users in their choice of natural refrigerants. Background The Natural Refrigerants Transition Board was established in 2002 to encourage the adoption of natural refrigerant solutions to the problem of rapidly growing HFC emissions. In February 2007, the NRTB received a grant of AUD$2 million from the Australian Government to assist the supermarket industry in the trial and evaluation of a range of natural systems, and to encourage the development of training materials and courses for natural refrigerants. Next steps The NRTB will support a next conference on natural refrigerants to be organized by the Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating on 26 July, 2007.