Background
In October 2016, parties to the Montreal Protocol convened in Kigali, Rwanda and successfully negotiated an amendment to the treaty that would phase down the use of compounds known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), greenhouse gases with high global-warming-potentials (GWPs). Developed countries are committed to reducing the use of HFCs incrementally, starting with a 10 percent cut by 2019 and reaching 85 percent by 2036. Most developing countries have committed to freezing the production and import of HFCs starting in 2024 and the remainder will begin in 2028. All of these actions will expedite the transition to next-generation refrigerant replacements.
As the commercial refrigeration industry moves away from ozone-depleting and high-GWP hydrochloro fluorocarbons (HCFCs) and high-GWP HFCs, environmental impact, safety and energy efficiency have become the three most frequently discussed topics as users seek new alternatives that meet the requirements of the Kigali amendment and can be used safely and effectively to retrofit existing equipment or in new installations.
Solution
Honeywell’s Solstice® N40 (R-448A) is a new, reduced-GWP refrigerant for commercial refrigeration, now available in the Asia Pacific region. Supermarkets, convenience stores, cold storage warehouses, and other applications that require low- and medium-temperature refrigeration equipment can now reduce their environmental impact and energy consumption with Solstice N40.
As the lowest-GWP, non-flammable, retrofit refrigerant available today, Honeywell’s Solstice N40 is designed to provide customers with a near drop-in replacement for previous-generation solutions such as R-22 and R-404A. In supermarket trials conducted in the US and Europe, Solstice N40 demonstrated 3 percent lower energy consumption in low-temperature applications, and 5 to 16 percent lower energy consumption in medium-temperature applications compared with R-404A.
Challenge
Supermarkets and convenient stores have challenging tasks of minimizing operation costs, ensuring food quality, maintaining store operations, and meeting environmental commitments. Refrigerant customers in the Asia Pacific region seek new solutions to further improve energy efficiency and optimize system performance. For many stores, the energy cost for keeping perishable foods at proper temperature can be as high as 50 to 60 percent of their total energy costs, making energy efficiency is one of the most critical needs for supermarkets and convenience stores.
Benefits
- Solstice N40 has a GWP of 1273, which is 68 percent lower than R-404A’s 3943.
• It reduces operating costs by helping stores reduce their energy consumption by up to 16 percent.
• It is expected to achieve upto a 40 percent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in four years’ term.
• As the equipment design for Solstice N40 is similar to R-404A and R-22, it enables continual use of existing hardware and can, therefore, support retrofitting or renovation of stores, in addition to new installations.
• Solstice refrigerant solutions are next-generation products that are safe for the intended use and capable of making a significant positive environmental impact.
Growing Demand
By the end of 2017, more than 7,500 Solstice N40 installations will be completed globally, making it the most widely accepted, lower-GWP product for supermarket refrigeration. Furthermore, the refrigerant is also supported by leading system and showcase OEMs including Danfoss, Emerson Climate Technologies and Bitzer, in the European Union, United States, Japan, and Asia Pacific.
Customers need refrigeration technologies that provide the optimal energy efficiency, are easy to implement and maintain, have minimal impact on the environment, and lower total cost of ownership.
To meet regulatory requirements and achieve the economic benefits of Solstice N40, supermarkets are accelerating conversion from R-404A to R-448A as the lowest possible GWP and non-flammable replacement. Honeywell has robust supply capacity in the Asia Pacific region and estimates that there will be at least 1,000 more installations of Solstice N40 by end of this year.
Honeywell’s Fluorine Products business has been at the forefront in developing today’s next-generation, non-ozone-depleting and lower-GWP solutions to meet energy and environmental needs. Honeywell’s solutions are commercially available worldwide to help customers quickly and efficiently transition to next-generation technologies that meet their environmental commitments.
Delivering Customer Value
Most recently in August 2017, Tesco Lotus, a leading supermarket retailer in Thailand and part of Tesco Group, converted 900 Tesco Lotus Express stores to Honeywell’s Solstice® N40 refrigerant to voluntarily reduce carbon emissions. It was the first implementation in Asia of Solstice N40. By converting all of its 1,500 Express stores in Thailand over the next two years to Honeywell’s Solstice N40 (R-448A), the retail giant aims to achieve energy savings of up to 10 percent.
“Honeywell’s Solstice N40 meets our key criteria for energy efficiency and performance. It is also an easy replacement for our current refrigerant, ensuring no disruption for the 15 million customers we serve on a weekly basis,” said Mr. Miroslav Friml, Property Director, Tesco Lotus.
Coborn’s Inc, a US supermarket chain with 52 supermarkets and 120 standalone retail locations across the Midwest, embarked upon an exciting project to build a 45,000-square-foot, next-generation supermarket in Isanti, Minn. After completing a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, Coborn’s decided to install a new refrigeration system using Honeywell’s Solstice N40 refrigerant. Estimates showed that the cost of a CO2 transcritical design and equipment would be 20 to 30 percent greater.
“The decision to go with a Solstice N40 refrigerant system was easy because it was significantly more cost effective than CO2 and offered terrific energy efficiency,” said Chris Braun, project manager for Construction, Refrigeration and Maintenance, Coborn’s.
Solstice N40 is a non-flammable, reduced-GWP hydrofluoroolefin blend refrigerant designed for low-and medium-temperature commercial refrigeration applications such as supermarkets and convenience stores. It is suitable for R-22 and R-404A retrofits and new installations. Solstice N40 has a GWP of 1273 and provides 68 percent GWP reduction and up to 16 percent lower energy consumption compared with R-404A.
