Sanyo Electric has developed refrigeration equipment that uses CO2 as the refrigerant instead of Freon and has already supplied it to the Sapporo branch of the Japan Cooperative Association. This is the first time that commercial refrigeration equipment using CO2 refrigerant has been supplied in Japan. Compared to refrigeration equipment using refrigerant instead of Freon, the greenhouse effect, converted to CO2 emissions, is reduced by approximately 60%. The sales target is 22 billion yen by 2012.
Sanyo Electric supplied eight refrigeration units and display cases to the "Sekyo Sapporo Nishinomiya no Sawa Store," operated by the Sapporo branch of the Japan Cooperative Association. This large supermarket, built with wood, aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% compared to previous stores. The refrigeration equipment was supplied at approximately 1.5 to 2 times the original price (Sanyo Electric). At the time of supply, Sanyo Electric received a subsidy from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for its 2010 "Support Business for the Development and Practical Application of Emission Suppression Equipment for Three Gases, Including Hydrofluorocarbons."
The refrigeration equipment consists of a refrigerator with a built-in CO2 compressor, an evaporator for evaporating and vaporizing high-pressure CO2 refrigerant, display cases for displaying goods, and piping connecting these components. To use CO2 refrigerant, the refrigerator is equipped with two "CO2 two-stage rotary compressors" that compress the refrigerant in two stages. When using CO2 as a refrigerant, the pressure needs to be increased by approximately 4 to 10 times, reaching about 8 MPa, compared to using a refrigerant that replaces Freon. Due to the high-pressure refrigerant, the thickness of the piping components is increased.
The reason why using CO2 refrigerant can mitigate the greenhouse effect is because CO2 refrigerant has an extremely low greenhouse effect coefficient, only 1. Previously, refrigerants that replaced Freon included R404a, but R404a has a greenhouse effect coefficient as high as around 4000. Furthermore, the amount of refrigerant used in this refrigeration equipment was reduced by about 1/5 compared to R404a. Through these achievements, the greenhouse effect reduction of the refrigeration equipment, converted to CO2 emissions, is approximately 35 tons. In addition, the power consumption of the refrigeration equipment was reduced by 10%. This part reduced CO2 emissions by 3 tons, resulting in a total reduction of 38 tons for the entire equipment.
Source: Tech Online
