CO2 or R290 for Supermarket Applications – Pros and Cons.

Emerson Climate Technologies GmbH has commissioned to Institute für Luft- und Kältetechnik (ILK) an energy comparison and a life cycle cost analysis (LCC analysis) for two different supermarket refrigeration systems at the Munich, Barcelona and Gothenburg sites. The first concept is a traditional refrigeration system consisting of a compressor pack refrigeration system with the refrigerant R744 (CO2) and remote display cabinets. The 2nd concept consists of refrigeration cabinets with an integrated refrigeration system (plug-in refrigeration system) with the refrigerant R290 (propane) in which the dissipation of heat from the refrigeration process takes place via an external brine circuit. For the energetic considerations the normal cooling range was considered, since the deep-freezing, cold storage rooms and the air conditioning/heating is assumed to be identical for both supermarket concepts. The calculation results for the electrical energy demand showed that the energy demand is strongly dependent on the chosen location and the associated temperature profiles during summer.