A record-breaking 109,000 trade visitors attended the largest ever EuroShop trade fair, organised 16 – 20 February, in Dusseldorf, Germany.The five-day triennial event, spread over 200,000 m², not only featured the largest ever number of natural refrigerant systems and components,but also provided market development company shecco with a platform to unveil first results from a study among large Western and Northern European food retailers: natural refrigerant solutions are widely considered a better investment than HFC systems.

Presenting some of the strongest evidence to date that natural refrigerants are now a mainstream solution in the commercial refrigeration sector, the study commissioned by Carrier revealed that retailers in Germany, France, UK, Denmarkand Norway deem CO₂ and hydrocarbons to be on par with HFC systems in several key areas.

Two out of three retailers in Northern and Western Europe opt for natural refrigerants

According to the survey, at least two thirds of leading retailers in Western and Northern Europe have chosen to implement natural refrigerant technology in their stores, largely because in terms of reliability and safety, rated as critical factors in the purchase of new refrigeration technology, natural working fluids are considered as good as HFC systems. Natural refrigerants are also considered to be on parity in terms of return on investment (ROI) and life-cycle costs.

Carbon footprint reduction a key to retailer’s business success

Survey respondents also indicated their choice of technology is increasingly influenced by the belief that carbon footprint reduction is linked to their overall business success. 71% of respondents stated policies have been initiated at the highest enterprise group levels of their organisations to drive carbon footprint reduction in their stores. Refrigeration, namely the useof energy-efficient systems and low GWP refrigerants, was identified as the most important environmental feature to increase a store’s energy efficiency, above lighting, overall energy management (including waste heat recovery), and fleet management in terms of environmental energy efficiency importance.

While legislation can be a key driver in accelerating the pace of deployment of sustainability activities by retailers, more and more food retailers are proactively seeking new substances and technologies to align with their companies’ sustainability agendas, promising direct and indirect business value,” said Nina Masson, shecco’s Head of Market Research.

CO₂ is an especially attractive refrigerant for centralised systems 

With regards to the different natural refrigerant options available, for 75% of the survey respondents CO₂ is the preferred refrigerant for centralised supermarket refrigeration systems,increasingly implemented in CO₂ transcritical booster systems. These have almost doubled in the number in Europe since shecco’s first market survey in 2012, helping Europe to maintain its position as a world leader in CO₂ commercial refrigeration. 

Within Europe, Denmark remains the market leader with more than 712 CO₂ transcritical supermarkets, followed by the United Kingdom, with 441, Germany, with 428, and Norway, with 310. 

Masson discussed future technology trends for CO₂ commercial refrigeration. Already, the so-called “CO₂ efficiency equator” is moving further south thanks to technologies such as economizers, ejectors and sub cooling, designed to improve the efficiency of CO₂ transcritical systems in climates with extended periods of high temperatures and also climates with high peak temperatures.

Food retailers see natural refrigerants as secure investment in light of future HFC bans 

When asked about future HFC bans under the EU’s revised F-Gas Regulation, respondents were found to be familiar with restrictions on F-gas use and had already, or would soon, implement appropriate strategies. In fact, more than two thirds of respondents said that the f-gas bans in centralised supermarket refrigeration systems would not impact their refrigeration strategy as the retailers were already implementing f-gas alternatives. These early adopters of natural refrigerant technology thus see natural working fluids as secure investments.

The results of a survey that showed natural refrigerant solutions were widely considered a better investment than HFC systems HERE

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