CO2 as a Refrigerant — Comparison of R744 with Other Refrigerants

 This is post number six of a series, and compares CO2 to both traditional and new refrigerants. R744 vs. Other Refrigerants Table 1 shows a simple comparison of R744 with other types of refrigerants, including those that are currently commonly used and those that are currently being evaluated for future use. It uses a simple “traffic light” system and employs the common HFCs, such as R404A and R134a as a baseline. This provides a simple introduction to the options — the situation varies globally, especially in the availability of refrigerants, components and expertise. For retail applications a well-designed and installed R407A/F system generally has better efficiency than R744 systems. However, the overall environmental performance of R744 systems is better, primarily because of the low GWP in the event of leakage

Table 1: Comparison of R744 with other refrigerants

Blog post seven in this series will weigh the advantages and disadvantages of R744.