Rtoc assessment Report 2014 (Slight corrections made in Tables 2-8 and 2-9)

Commercial refrigeration

Commercial refrigeration can be broadly classified as three different groups of systems: centralised systems (refrigerant is field charged) installed in supermarkets, condensing units (refrigerant is field charged) installed mainly in small shops and restaurants, and self-contained or stand-alone units (refrigerant is factory charged). On a global basis, HCFC-22 continues to represent a large refrigerant bank in commercial refrigeration and is used at all temperature levels. The most widely used HFC is R-404A and this for all temperature levels. Over the last decade, HCs --for low refrigerant charge systems-- and CO₂ --for supermarkets-- have taken significant market share, especially in Europe. In parallel, progress has been made to improve energy efficiency and leak tightness especially for centralized systems. The progressive phase-out of HCFC-22 in developing countries requires making informed choices on the best replacement options.

Stand-alone Equipment: Even if they have very different GWPs, HFC-134a and R-404A can be expected to be phased-out progressively in developed countries. Lower GWP HFC and HFC blends, hydrocarbons and CO₂ are replacing R-404A and HFC-134a in new stand-alone equipment. Minimum energy standards have been issued or updated in many countries making a new competition between manufacturers in order to reach higher energy efficiency in stand-alone systems.
Condensing Units: Condensing units are designed for several capacities and are standardized equipment; their cooling capacities vary from 5 to 20 kW with a refrigerant charge varying from 1 to 5 kg. HCFC-22 is still the most used refrigerant in all Article 5 countries. For new systems, R-404A is still the leading choice, and intermediate blends such as R-407A or R-407F are proposed as immediate options to replace R-404A. Global companies are now offering hydrocarbon condensing units for smaller capacities.

Supermarket systems: The size of centralised systems can vary from refrigerating capacities of about 20 kW to more than 1 MW relative to the size of the supermarket. Refrigerant charges range from 40 up to 3000 kg per installation. In Article 5 countries, HCFC-22 is still the dominant refrigerant used in centralised systems. In Europe, new systems have been mainly charged with R-404A; R-744 is now taking a significant market share with improved energy efficiency by using two-stage systems, options well known from industrial refrigeration. For small and medium size supermarkets, the so-called “booster system” has been designed to use CO₂ at the low and the medium temperature levels. For large supermarkets, the cascade system is preferred with CO₂ at the low temperature level and CO₂ or HFC-134a at the medium temperature level. Distributed systems are also quite common, gaining market share with improved energy efficiency, lower charge levels and lower emission rates. Indirect systems are also popular in order to limit the refrigerant content by more than 50% and to drastically lower refrigerant emission levels. For developing countries, the important issue remains the replacement of HCFC-22, either for retrofit or for new installations. Blends such as R-407A or R-407F constitute options offering significantly lower GWP than R-404A and R-507A.

Industrial systems

The majority of large industrial systems use R-717 as the refrigerant. When R-717 is not acceptable in direct systems in these countries, options include R-744 or glycol in secondary systems or HCFCs or HFCs in direct systems. In countries where R-717 has not been the preferred solution, or in market segments with smaller systems, the transition from HCFC-22 is not straightforward. It requires acceptance of higher cost fluorocarbons in systems similar to the types used with R-22 or the adoption of more expensive systems with the cheaper refrigerants R-717 and R-744. This transition is slow and is constrained by a lack of trained personnel and lack of experience of the local end-users. It has been facilitated by corporate policy from multinational food and beverage manufacturers. The process of moving from HCFCs to zero ODP, low GWP alternatives would be accelerated by a concerted education and training programme including operational experience and lessons learned from existing systems. This conclusion has been reinforced by several recent fatal accidents in Article 5 countries. These accidents appear to be caused by the acceptance of low standards of safety that would not be acceptable in more mature markets. Suitable safety standards already exist, for example those published by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO).

In markets where R-717 is accepted as the preferred refrigerant there is no indication of any likelihood of new refrigerants gaining any significant market share. It is self-evident that if the current range of HFC fluids that could be used in these applications are being avoided due to concerns about refrigerant price and long term availability in bulk quantities then new fluids, which are expected to be even more expensive than current HFCs will not be any more successful. There are a few exceptions to this general rule. For example, HFC-1234ze(E) has been demonstrated in large district heating systems as a possible replacement for HFC-134a, however its performance is not any better than HFC-134a which is already limited in application and efficiency compared for example with R-717. HFC-1234ze(E) has also been demonstrated in centrifugal chillers which could be used in process cooling or in district cooling installations. This may be a key player in addressing the challenge of rapid market growth in the Gulf Co-operation Countries over the next twenty years.

The industrial sectors covered by this chapter are too diverse to facilitate the level of development expenditure required to bring a new fluid to market. It therefore follows that if any new development gains market share in industrial systems, it will be a fluid developed for some other purpose, either as a refrigerant in smaller mass-market systems or as a foam-blowing agent, solvent or other specialty chemical. Apart from absorption systems there is no significant growth of other not-in-kind cooling or heating solutions.