ShareSupermarket refrigerant retrofitting.
A few figures about supermarkets retrofitting their refrigeration systems with alternative refrigerants.
- Within a project started in September 2014, the Dutch international retailer group Ahold decided to retrofit 175 Ahold supermarket (out of a total of 6,600 shops) refrigeration systems from R407F and R507A to R449A, resulting in an 8% increase in energy efficiency.
Developed by Chemours as Opteon XP40, R449A is an alternative to R404A/R507A in new and existing commercial and industrial refrigeration systems. It is a non-flammable HFC/HFO blend but it has a GWP of 1,397. Chemours recently announced that R449A was predicted to be in over 1,000 supermarket and commercial refrigeration systems worldwide by the end of 2016. - Besides, Honeywell recently announced that the 15,000th supermarket has retrofitted its refrigeration systems with R407F. During a long-term test conducted by ASDA, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, R407F consumed 9% less energy than systems using R407A, and around 14% less than systems running R-404A in medium temperature. R407F is a non-flammable blend of HFCs but has a relatively high GWP of 1,824.
- Honeywell also announced that they expected over 2,000 supermarket refrigeration systems to convert to R448A refrigerant by the end of 2016. R448A is a non-flammable HFC/HFO blend with a GWP of 1,273.
- As a comparison, according to Shecco, R744 (CO2) was installed in around 7,000 supermarkets worldwide, mainly in Europe (over 5,500) early 2016. (see IIR Newsletter No. 65).