Intarcon, a Spanish manufacturer of commercial and industrial refrigeration units, is piloting a double cascade R290-CO2-CO2 refrigeration system in an installation in Cordoba, in the south of Spain.
“It’s a double cascade refrigeration system configured to use two CO2 loops in conjunction with a propane loop to provide cooling to cabinets, freezers and cold rooms in a supermarket,” Daniel Campaña from INTARCON told last month’s ATMOsphere Ibérica conference in Madrid.
Campaña said the firm had tested the double cascade propane-CO2 system against direct expansion R134a-CO2 cascade systems and CO2 transcritical systems (including standard boosters as well as systems with parallel compression, and with ejectors).
He said they found even in outside temperatures of over 40oC and up to 50oC, the propane- CO2-CO2 refrigeration system performed better than any of the other systems. The R290-CO2-CO2 systems INTARCON currently has on the market can provide cooling in the 20-60 kW range.
Despite this novel technology, other conference participants argued that CO2 transcritical remains the favoured option for the food retail market on the Iberian Peninsula in the long term.
Source: hydrocarbons21.com
