Why choose CO₂ for your cooling?
Choosing CO₂ as your cooling agent has been described as “Economically sound and environmentally brilliant” when compared to HFCs and glycol-based systems.
The natural choice
While CO₂ has always been an attractive choice as a refrigerant, advances in terms of transcritical system technology have meant that the historic challenges dealing with high pressures have been overcome and CO₂ cooling installations are no longer more costly to install. Standard 120 bar and 52 bar components are now available which makes CO₂ a cost-efficient choice for refrigeration systems.
When it comes to replacing HFCs and Glycol based systems in the industrial refrigeration plants, CO₂ is proving to be a natural choice – literally!
Reduced operating costs
CO₂ is less costly both to operate and to service when compared with the more traditional ammonia and secondary glycol systems. Combine this with the benefits of smaller pipe dimensions and a reduced overall footprint, thanks to CO₂’s notably lower viscosity throughout the temperature range, and there are potential savings to be had both on the installation and in the overall complexity of a CO₂ based cooling system.
CO₂’s high heat transfer efficiency coefficient means a significant reduction in energy consumption because you can operate with a much lower temperature difference in evaporators and heat exchangers. Even in cases where a more complex refrigeration system might prompt higher installation costs, this is soon recovered through the significantly lower energy costs.
CO₂ has superior thermophysical properties, is non-toxic, non-flammable and non-corrosive and its volumetric performance is up to 12 times better than NH₃.
Reduced carbon footprint
Using CO₂ as your cooling agent will not only reduce your carbon footprint through the use of a gas with negligable impact on the environment compared to conventional gases, in addition to using less energy and being a lot less toxic than that of ammonia.
CO₂ has a very low GWP (global warming potential) value of 1 as opposed to the current refrigerant typically used such as R404A having a GWP equal to 3800. With refrigeration legislation increasing over the coming years, HFC R404A will be out of circulation by 2020.
Futureproof your plant
CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, but studies have illustrated that the impact on global warming by HFCs is 6000 times higher than CO₂. Governments are increasingly taking action to reduce the use of HFCs so choosing CO₂ will safeguard your plant from any future restrictions.