ATMOsphere Europe 2012: R744 solution is ready for Europe

At ATMOsphere Europe 2012, discussion about the present market situation and trends, and how to best address pending barriers for their faster market uptake were hot topics among the 200 stakeholders in the conference.  Speakers in the “Market Overview for Europe” session, as well as during the introductory keynote speech also shared their views on the market prospects for natural refrigerants.

 

 

Andy Pearson, President of the UK Institute of Refrigeration reminded participants in his keynote speech that some of the largest success stories in the natural refrigerants industry – like the 90% market share of new hydrocarbon domestic refrigerators introduced to the European market or the steadily growing number of CO₂ refrigeration supermarket system - were mostly driven by the fact that their use made good business sense, while also delivering on the environmental benefits at the same time.

 

 

Nina Masson, Head of Market Research shecco, introduced the market situation of natural refrigerants and their developments in Europe and the world, based on a series of research studies carried out over the last two years. 
 

According to Ms Masson, natural refrigerants have a significant potential in the commercial refrigeration sector around the world. Looking beyond Europe’s borders, around an estimated 3,000+ supermarket systems use no fluorinated gases in Europe, as compared to around 100 in Japan, 60 in the USA, and less than 10 in China. 

 

However, she reminded the audience that other areas deserve more attention to ensure Europe’s global competitiveness in that field. At times when the potential production capacity of CO₂ heat pumps is up to 100,000 in China, and Japan has reached a 98% market share of CO₂ heat pumps in the residential hot water heaters segment, Europe has not yet caught up on driving the commercialisation of such models. Today, at least 16 manufacturers produce CO₂-based heat pump systems for a variety of industry sectors and applications in Europe but the market share is estimated at a low 3% in the residential heating sector.

 

 

As Torben Hansen from Advansor said in his speech: “So yes, we have CO₂ commercial refrigeration solutions for all of Europe. As a supplier we want to send a very clear message: We are ready. We can do this today, so why do we wait until tomorrow?” 

 

As the cheapest ton of CO₂ footprint reduction, the replacement of traditional systems with CO₂ transcritical systems already has a strong business case in the retail industry in many European countries. The end users and their customers can afford to make the transition already today. Clear evidence indicates the roll out of CO₂ transcritical systems is happening in many European counties without legislation.

 

Mr Hansen expressed the industry is now clearly moving beyond the first generation systems that have superior performance over all HFC systems in Northern climate and second generation CO₂ systems with parallel compression, which are 5-10% more efficient in the mid-Europe region. The suppliers’ present challenge is to address the performance in Southern Europe. 

 

 

According to Carrier, R744 is a viable alternative to f-gas based refrigeration in warmer climates. Increased attention at ATMOsphere Europe 2012 was paid to CO₂ systems improvement and components development for improved efficiency in countries with higher average ambient temperature. Carrier presented their technical solutions to increasing transcritical CO₂ system efficiencies for commercial refrigeration in warmer climates in the session. In the presentation, Lothar Serwas from Carrier expressed that demonstrable market acceptance of transcritical CO₂ system in warmer climates is attainable. Attractive energy performance of transcritical CO₂ system at temperatures up to +15 °C is recorded.