Within a project started in September 2014, the Dutch international retailer group Ahold decided to retrofit 175 Ahold supermarket (out of a total of 6,600 shops) refrigeration systems from R407F and R507A to R449A, resulting in an 8% increase in energy efficiency.
Developed by Chemours as Opteon XP40, R449A is an alternative to R404A/R507A in new and existing commercial and industrial refrigeration systems. It is a non-flammable HFC/HFO blend but it has a GWP of 1,397. Chemours recently announced that R449A was predicted to be in over 1,000 supermarket and commercial refrigeration systems worldwide by the end of 2016.
Besides, Honeywell recently announced that the 15,000th supermarket has retrofitted its refrigeration systems with R407F. During a long-term test conducted by ASDA, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, R407F consumed 9% less energy than systems using R407A, and around 14% less than systems running R-404A in medium temperature. R407F is a non-flammable blend of HFCs but has a relatively high GWP of 1,824.
Honeywell also announced that they expected over 2,000 supermarket refrigeration systems to convert to R448A refrigerant by the end of 2016. R448A is a non-flammable HFC/HFO blend with a GWP of 1,273.
As a comparison, according to Shecco, R744 (CO2) was installed in around 7,000 supermarkets worldwide, mainly in Europe (over 5,500) early 2016. (see IIR Newsletter No. 65).
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