By refrigerant

Hindustan Unilever, an India-based subsidiary of Unilever, yesterday announced it is rolling out freezer cabinets that use hydrocarbon refrigerants.

Carrefour Belgium has opened its first ever store fitted with a propylene water-loop refrigeration system. The retail giant will test the system over the next twelve months before deciding whether to roll out the concept in other locations.

The Madagasy Union of Refrigeration Technicians (UFM) is running an awareness-raising campaign to promote uptake of natural refrigerants.

This December, Hannaford Supermarkets, a division of Ahold Delhaize, will begin installing a transcritical CO₂ refrigeration system in an existing store in Raymond, New Hampshire, its first such retrofit project and one of only a few in the United States.

Environmental group the EIA has called on major global fast food chains to reducing their refrigeration footprint in India.

Two major rulings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are expected to be released in the next two to four weeks, according to Drusilla Hufford, director of the EPA’s Stratospheric Protection Division.

The Japanese company has placed its first CO₂ system in Europe, in a COOP store in Randers, Denmark.

The R134a market in Europe is set to undergo an inevitable decline from 1st January 2017 following regulatory changes affecting fluorinated gases for automotive air conditioning taking effect on that date. In this sharply declining market, Arkema has decided to put forward to the Central Works Council today a project for the closure of the R134a fluorogas plant at its Pierre-Bénite site (France). This proposed closure would not result in any redundancies.

Two U.S. supermarkets that use ammonia/CO₂ cascade refrigeration systems – a Whole Foods Market and a Piggly Wiggly – received the GreenChill Award for “Best of the Best” certified stores from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership.

In the largest HFO chiller installation of its kind in the world, Trane CenTraVac’s using R1233zd(E) will replace the existing R22 chillers serving the Channel Tunnel.

France’s HFC phase-down obligations under the EU’s F-Gas Regulation are helping to increase uptake of ammonia refrigeration technologies in industrial applications.

US retailer Piggly Wiggly has recorded energy savings averaging 28.5% over a seven-month period in a Georgia store, thanks mainly to its NH₃/CO₂ refrigeration system.

French firm Atlantic Compressors is delivering an NH₃-CO₂ cascade system to serve the cooling needs of a distribution centre for one of France’s main supermarket chains. The system will be up and running next month.

Emerson Climate Technologies has released three new digital scroll compressors, extending its Summit K5E series to 15hp.

A Waitrose supermarket is said to be achieving refrigeration energy savings of nearly 7% following the replacement of R404A with a new HFO-based blend.

The number of potential new lower GWP refrigerants continues to rise with four more proposed for inclusion in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34-2013.

The gourmet German food specialist Frische Paradies is using a state-of-the-art R134a/CO₂ cascade system in its new supermarket in Stuttgart.

A developed society cannot function without refrigeration. At home, in food production and storage (e.g. frozen foods, yogurt, and or coffee), in the production processes of the automotive or chemical-pharmaceutical industry, or for air conditioning – wherever you look, “cooling” is essential. Industrially generated “coldness” is a central pillar of modern life. In Germany, 14 % of the primary energy consumed is used for cooling purposes. Negative influences on the environment can be reduced by using natural refrigerants.

Experts attending the 2016 Gustav Lorentzen conference this week were optimistic that China’s HCFC phase-out plan will trigger wider uptake of natural refrigerants across the Asian powerhouse.

Danish manufacturer Advansor is working on the biggest CO₂ industrial refrigeration system known in the world in a lettuce plant in the Netherlands.