Carbon dioxide refrigeration systems date back to the 1800’s, they were however difficult to control in these early days, Co2 was replaced, by the Freon family of gases, until the thinning of the ozone layer and global warming, sent the industry back to the drawing board, only to find that CO2 was a more viable option than ever before.
CO2 or R744 as it is known in the refrigeration industry, is a very effective refrigerant fluid which is used in a wide range of applications, and is considered to be both a long term and highly cost effective refrigerant, that will in time replace the Freon style chemical refrigerants in commercial, and some industrial cooling systems.
CO2 is very popular in cold storage, as it out performs other refrigerants in terms of cooling, and energy consumption, it is non toxic, the refrigerant gas is very inexpensive to buy as a replacement in the event of a leak, and it has very small volume of gas required per kw of cooling, compared to all other refrigerants.
There are many design options that will deliver different capital costs and operating costs, that can be tailored to suit most applications.
A well designed R744 system, will out perform a standard R404a system by as much as 40%, in terms of energy consumption, and is ideally suited to low temperature cooling, such as freezer and cold storage systems.
This project won the ARBS project excellence award 2018 for The Strathbrook group.
