First Industrial Transcritical CO2 System Installed in Malaysia
Malaysian HVAC&R contractor FFM Engineering recently installed the country’s first industrial transcritical CO2 (R744) system at a cold storage facility in Kuala Lumpur, according to a presentation from Mark Leong, a representative of the engineering company, during the State of the Industry – Southeast Asia online session on the second day of the ATMOsphere APAC Summit 2022.
In February 2021, the system, which has a cooling capacity of 80kW (22.7TR), was installed at the 5,400m3 (190,699ft3) cold storage facility of frozen-food supplier Dong Sing. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the unit’s installation and commissioning were completed by FFM Engineering with remote support from Nihon Netsugen.
During its first year of operation, the unit provided stable performance data; based on simulation data from an R22 system, it reduces energy consumption by nearly 15%. According to Leong, this trial proves that the technology can work in Malaysia’s climate.
While the transcritical CO2 market is strong in other regions around the world, it’s relatively new to Southeast Asia. As of May 2021, there was just the one industrial unit in operation in Malaysia and 13 units that had been installed in Indonesia.
According to Leong, R744-based refrigeration systems were introduced to Malaysia 5–10 years ago, but these were limited to cascade systems due to technical limitations, high costs and low acceptance of the refrigerant in the country.
Today, the biggest challenge to adopting CO2 systems in Malaysia remains the cost, he explained. To overcome this, FFM Engineering is working with Nihon Netsugen in Japan to bring down costs, as well as the Malaysian government to provide financial support.
With acceptance and interest in the technology growing, Leong expects the adoption of transcritical CO2 to increase in the region in the coming years. In fact, over the next few months, FFM Engineering is due to install two more transcritical CO2 systems in Malaysia. Both units will be manufactured by Nihon Netsugen.