China Refrigeration: Walking on the CO2 path - Part I

The world’s third largest trade show for heating and cooling was, as expected, dominated by solutions for conventional refrigerants. However, a surprising number of global players presented CO2 components set to be sold on the Chinese market in a few years time. In a technical seminar, Bitzer updated Chinese experts on latest developments regarding CO2 compressors.

At the China Refrigeration, held last week from 5-7 April in Guangzou, companies known to be involved in CO2, nearly animously agreed that the natural refrigerant would certainly be a solution to be taken to the Chinese market in the near future. At present however, and also looking at cost cutting tendencies in the industry, CO2 would remain mainly in the testing phase, with commercialisation to be expected over the next few years.

Technical Seminar on CO2 compressors

In its technical presentation to around 100 industry experts and engineers, German compressor manufacturer Bitzer updated on the performance and operation of its CO2 range. In a packed room, Bitzer representatives from China started off by explaining basic characteristics of R744, its behaviour compared to R22 or R404a, differences between transcritical and subcritical operation, and the compact design of CO2 compressors. The compressor maker then went on to elaborate on the different system layouts used with R744, specific design options, and efficiency comparisons between the natural and chemical refrigerants.

Participants were highly interested in technical details regarding high-pressure R744 systems. Lively discussions centred around the questions of oil return, the materials used for CO2 compressors, the preferred hybrid systems used in European supermarkets, and better cooling systems in a Chinese test system using R404a-R744.