With the commercial refrigeration industry taking a closer look at natural and alternative refrigerant options in the wake of the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Emerson Climate Technologies, has updated its Copeland compressor lines to meet these new compliance standards.
The refrigeration industry is taking an even closer look at both CO2 (R-744) and propane (R-290); each has extremely low Global Warming Potential.
In one back-to-back R-290 performance testing, Emerson saw an efficiency improvement of approximately 10 per cent.
Several compressors that utilize these natural alternatives have been released, including:
Copeland semi-hermetic transcritical CO2 compressors; Copeland Scroll compressors for subcritical CO2 applications;
Copeland hermetic compressors for R-290 to be used in small reach-in systems where the refrigerant charge is less than 150g.
The majority of Copeland compressor platforms have also been validated for use with A1, hydrofluoroolefin blends, such as R-448A and R-449A. This includes both the Copeland Scroll and Copeland semi-hermetic compressor lines. Later this year Emerson expects to validate its line of Copeland hermetic compressors for use with these blends as well.
The company's vice president of engineering and electronics, Kurt Knapke, said Emerson has also invested in compressor
evaluations using A2L (mildly flammable) refrigerants such as HFO-1234yf and HFO-1234ze.
While the EPA has not yet listed A2Ls as an acceptable substitute, he said Emerson is preparing for their likely introduction into commercial refrigeration applications.
“All the while it’s important to note that from a refrigerant perspective we’re not changing our core technology to achieve compatibility. We are continually improving our designs to optimize new refrigerant alternatives,” Knapke said.