SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION

ASSIGNMENT 4

Which refrigerant should Tesco use?

Evaluating the refrigerants available in relation to the application

MSc Building Services Engineering / SUSTAINABLE

REFRIGERATION

EUB-7-964
2012/2013
By
Mortadha Majeed
Student ID (2818557)

SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION (EUB-7-964) 2012/13

Which refrigerant should Tesco use?

Evaluating the refrigerants available in relation to the application

There are many reasons leads to increase the global temperature which is rises
1.5 - 4.7 k in average for the next 100 years. The emission of greenhouse gases is one of
the main reasons of the global warming. The use of refrigerants in the supermarkets and
the cold stores is considered as one of the important cause of this increase of the global
temperature. Its a direct and indirect impact of the emission of greenhouse gases which
could be caused by leakage of a refrigerant such as HFC, this impact directly the global
warming. So the scientists refers that the refrigerants have very high global warming
potential. The large consume of electricity in the supermarkets produce a noticeable
magnitude of carbon dioxide which is impact indirectly the global warming.

Tesco as one of UK supermarkets use a large area for display or store the foods. In
this area should be cold ambient to keep the food in the best quality. It is clear that all of
the known used refrigerants have side effect on the environment, but the researcher
work very hard to find a less effect refrigerant and they put in their mind important
parameters such as use of natural refrigerants to reduce significantly both direct and
indirect greenhouse gas emissions.
Refrigerators have already become part of our lives so its important to find the best
possible refrigerant for Tesco supermarket for the next 20 years according to the most
important criteria related to the environment impact assessment, safe and proper use
and economic feature.
Legislation is having an immediate impact upon users of chemical refrigerants.
The
ban
on
chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs),
further
restrictions
on
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and tough new requirements for the handling of
refrigerants are all likely to have a serious cost impact unless very carefully managed.
Supermarkets will wish to avoid the adverse implications of new regulations but at the
same time gain the benefits that novel techniques and refrigerants will bring. The aim
should be to obey the law, anticipate future legislation, and improve the bottom line, all
at the same time. The use of CFCs and HCFCs was effectively put to an end by the signing
of the Montreal Protocol in 1995. [6]

One of the most considered issues these years are the increasing of global
warming because of the emission of gases that effect directly the environment such as
ozone depletion potential of refrigerants. Supermarkets such as Tesco participate both
Mortadha Majeed

ID 2818557

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SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION (EUB-7-964) 2012/13

directly and indirectly to global warming. Directly, greenhouse gas emissions take place
through the leakage of refrigerants such as HFC which is used in the refrigeration
systems for refrigeration of food in the large area of the market. These refrigerants have
very high global warming with Global Warming Potential (GWP), And indirectly by the
utilizing of electricity which cause emission of CO2. Refrigerants like ammonia, carbon
dioxide and non- halogenated hydrocarbons are the natural refrigerants that maintain
the ozone layer. the criteria should be applied for choosing a refrigerant are no Ozone
depletion potential (ODP), Good thermodynamic properties, among others, good heat
transfer, low pressure ratio, high volumetric refrigeration capacity, non-corrosive,
compatibility with lubrication oils, chemical stability, non-toxic and non-flammable.
The refrigerant should choose for Tesco supermarket should be natural and the most
importantly it has no potential for global warming. This report focuses on the different
refrigerant but takes into account in brief the refrigeration system and technology which
have an influence on energy consumption, environment and investment costs.

The chosen refrigerant should be nontoxic and flammable. There are multiple
reasons that toxicity concerns have surfaced with the introduction of new refrigerants.
First, they are less familiar. Second, public consciousness of health hazards is growing.
Manufacturer concerns with liability also have increased. Third, few refrigerant users
fully understand the measures and terminology used to report the extensive toxicity
data being gathered. And fourth, the new chemicals are somewhat less stable when
released and exposed to air, water vapor, other atmospheric chemicals, and sunlight.
This increased reactivity is desired to reduce atmospheric longevity, and thereby to
reduce the fraction of emissions that reaches the stratospheric ozone layer or that
persists in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. While toxicity often increases with
higher reactivity, atmospheric reactivity is not necessarily pertinent. The most toxic
compounds are those with sufficient stability to enter the body and then decompose or
destructively metabolize in a critical organ. As examples, most CFCs are very stable in
the atmosphere, generally less stable than either HCFCs or hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
in refrigeration systems, and generally have comparable or greater acute toxicity than
HCFCs or HFCs. [1]
The ozone depletion potential (ODP) is the ratio of the potential impact on ozone
of a chemical compared to the impact of the same mass of CFC-12, with the latter having
an impact of 1. Global warming refers to a phenomenon in which infrared rays are
absorbed by molecules in CO2 and methane, as well as air conditioner refrigerants like
CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs. This prevents heat from escaping the Earth's surface.
Natural refrigerant should be the alternative refrigerant which is best fit to the
environmental criteria, For new stores, the aim should be to achieve energy
consumption levels of less than half that of current systems. New stores should be
significantly more energy efficient and use natural refrigerants not only to reduce
energy consumption but also to save the company from criticism for contributing to
global climate change. By adopting energy efficiency measures and using natural
refrigerants, supermarkets could achieve considerable cost savings, meet the high
Mortadha Majeed

ID 2818557

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standards of environmental performance and avoid unnecessary expenditure in the
future. This will maximise the green dividend by reducing running costs and avoiding
replacement costs, whilst making a significantly smaller demand on the Earths
resources. [3] Today, there are three specific types of refrigerants used in refrigeration
and air-conditioning systems. Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) such as R-11, R-12, and R-114
contains no hydrogen in molecules; they are stable in the atmosphere. This means they
cannot be easily broken down until they reach the stratosphere and thus have a high
ODP. CFCs contains Cl, F and C. (CFC) is long-lived, non-toxic, non-corrosive, and nonflammable, in 1960s used in refrigerators, air conditioners, spray cans, solvents, and
foams and phase out by 1996 in developed countries. Hydro chlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCs) such as R-22 or R-123 they contain hydrogen in molecules, HCFCs can be
broken down relatively easily in the atmosphere and thus have a low ODP. Since they
contain no chlorine or bromine, Contains of H, Cl, F and C, first major replacement for
CFC, ODPs range from 0.01 - 0.1, much less destructive by also ozone depleting and
reduce HCFCs by 35% by 2004 in developed countries. Hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs)
such as R-134a have an ODP of zero (HFCs) contains H, F and C do not deplete O3 and
some HFCs have a high GWP. All these refrigerants are "halogenated," which means
they contain chlorine, fluorine, bromine, astatine, or iodine. [4]
Is the most commonly used refrigerant in Europe today is R404A. Although it is
non-toxic and has zero ODP, it does have a high (GWP). Using alternative systems and
moving to a refrigerant with a lower GWP can significantly reduce the impact of
environmentally damaging emissions. Other important criteria such as the permanence,
and the cost of producing should take in the account. For example, alternatives to the
direct expansion (DX) system with central plant room have been successfully employed.
And natural refrigerants such as R744 offer the advantage of close to zero direct
emissions, although they may have penalties in terms of energy consumption, indirect
emissions and investment cost. Carbon dioxide offers a long-range solution adequate for
several applications for supermarket refrigeration. The nature of refrigerant that use in
this system is neither nontoxic nor flammable and thats very important because the
refrigerant flow in pipes distributed in the customer and users area. Other important
feature is the impact of this refrigerant on the GWP according to the leakage, because its
GWP is the lowest value (GWP=1) in compare to other refrigerants GWP. Table 1 shows
the GWP values of common refrigerants are from IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change) Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007.
The recommended refrigerant for Tesco according to the criteria of refrigerants
will be R744, because this refrigerant is the less GWP of the common refrigerants and
this refrigerant has ten noteworthy characteristics some are non-toxic, non-flammable,
environmentally benign, low triple point, low critical point, high pressure, and high
refrigeration volumetric capacity, high heat transfer characteristics, inexpensive and
readily available. The new refrigerants should be similar to those being replaced, but
with zero ozone depletion and the lowest possible GWP. [2]

Mortadha Majeed

ID 2818557

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SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION (EUB-7-964) 2012/13

There are five most common refrigerant technologies for supermarket refrigeration
systems as following:

Centralised Direct Expansion (DX)

Distributed Direct Expansion
Cascade system
Secondary system
R744 booster transcritical system.

For each of the refrigerant systems have positive and negative points, but as the earlier
studies making a big comparison among these systems with consequences to use R-744
system in a commercial application.
R744 is the chemical reference for carbon dioxide (CO2) used as refrigerant. It is a
naturally occurring substance that can be applied as a working fluid in different heating
and cooling applications, due to its excellent heat transfer properties and its high
volumetric cooling capacity. [2] Based on the safety and environmental criteria, R744
offers the excellence quality to choose this system in the supermarket which deals with
foods. This system is uses R744 (CO2) in both the MT and LT systems. The LT
compressors act as boosters to raise the vapour pressure to the level of the MT
evaporators.

The cost of the system and the refrigerants is one of the most important criteria
in the selection of which system should choose. So according to the parameters of each
refrigerant that discussed its clear to say that R744 is one of the cheapest refrigerant.
Because its a natural refrigerant and the manufacturing process is not complicated and
the source of the refrigerant is available. All these reduce the cost of the refrigerant. In
other side this help in to reducing of the emission of CO2 hence reduce the harmful
impact on the ozone. The life of the system according to the manufactures criteria refers
to possibility that system can keep working for more than 20 years. Since the volume of
R744 required to achieve the same cooling effect is much lower than for HFCs, many
components such as compressors and pipes can be smaller than in conventional
installations. [3]
As a conclusion we can recommended R744 as best fit refrigerant that should use
in Tesco supermarket, because is much more safety , natural, cheaper, low (GWP) and
always available.

Mortadha Majeed

ID 2818557

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SUSTAINABLE REFRIGERATION (EUB-7-964) 2012/13

References

[1] US Environmental Protection Agency EPA 2012. EPA [Online] Available at:
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/defns.html [Accessed 16 12 2012].
[2] Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers CIBSE (2006) CIBSE [Online]
Available at: http://www.cibse.org/pdfs/4a%20A%20Campbell.pdf [Accessed 16 12
2012].
[3] Emerson Climate Technology (European Headquarters) [Online] Available at:
http://www.emersonclimate.com/europe/Documents/Resources/Refrigerant_Report_P
RINT.pdf [Accessed 17 12 2012]
[4] Halocarbon Scenarios, Ozone Depletion Potentials, and Global Warming
Potentials(CHAPTER 8) 2012 [Online] Available at:
http://ozone.unep.org/Assessment_Panels/SAP/Scientific_Assessment_2006/10Chapter_8.pdf [Accessed 18 12 2012]
[5] The Use of Natural Refrigerants in Supermarket Systems,
Earthcare Products Limited 2006 Available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/events/0007/earthcare_natural_refrigerants_supermarkets_
en.pdf [Accessed 18 12 2012]

Mortadha Majeed

ID 2818557

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