After more than a year of operation, China’s second transcritical CO2 system – installed in a remodeled store – has been “operating successfully,” according to Li Li Du, Overseas Sales Director for Panasonic Appliances Refrigeration System (PAPRSDL) in Dalian, China.
PAPRSDL is a joint venture between Japan’s Panasonic Corporation and China’s Bingshan Group – one of the country’s largest manufacturers of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment.
“The system has been running very reliably, there has been no leakage and the customer is very satisfied with the energy savings,” said Du during a ChinaShop 2019 presentation about the project during the “Green Operations in China’s Retailing Industry: Climate Change & Store Operation” seminar. The seminar was hosted by the Chinese Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA) on the first day of ChinaShop 2019, held this year in Qingdao, China from November 7-9.
After installing heat recovery, the transcritical CO2 system had higher energy savings than the R22 system.”
– Li Li Du, Panasonic
The transcritical CO2 system was installed at a CSF Market store in Beijing in July 2018 as a part of a three-month store renovation project. The system replaced the store’s old R22 system.
Regarding energy performance, Du said that data for the two systems were analyzed and compared and it was found that the R22 system had performed better than the transcritical CO2 system at first. “However,” Du pointed out, “after installing heat recovery, the transcritical CO2 system had higher energy savings than the R22 system.” As a result, Du said that PAPRSDL “will develop transcritical CO2 systems with heat recovery systems in the next project and in the future.” Du declined to give further details on any plans for upcoming projects.
Gas-cooler outlet temperature is key
Among the biggest challenges in this project was how to best control the outlet temperature of the gas cooler, according to Du. “If the outlet temperature of the gas cooler increases by 1°C [1.8°F], the pressure will increase very rapidly and the energy performance will not be very good,” said Du. “The most important point for transcritical CO2, I think, is to control the gas cooler outlet temperature.”
The transcritical CO2 system installed at the CSF Market store includes a parallel-compression system. Du explained that all the different configurations and technologies available for transcritical CO2 systems such as ejectors, parallel compression and booster configurations, are directed towards gas cooler outlet temperature control.
At Panasonic’s booth on the tradeshow floor of ChinaShop 2019, the company was exhibiting its new 80HP (60kW) transcritical CO2 rack which was also built by PAPRSDL in Dalian, China. The system was first exhibited at the China Refrigeration exhibition in April.
CSF Market is one of China’s fastest growing local retail chains, now with 150+ store locations. It ranks 84th on the China Chain Store and Franchise Association’s (CCFA) 2017 list of China’s Top 100 Chain Stores and 39th on CCFA’s 2017 China Fast- Moving Consumer-Goods Chain Top 100 rankings list.
