CO2 as a Refrigerant — Criteria for Choosing Refrigerants

Multiple factors need to be carefully considered when selecting any refrigerant, including its cooling capacity, safety, environmental impact, ease of use, cost, and availability of components and expertise. Table 1 summarizes these and other key criteria, and shows how well R744 meets them.

In general, the table shows that R744 offers a more superior cooling capacity than conventional refrigerants while meeting the demand for a natural refrigerant with low global warming impact, but presents challenges in both its application and handling.

In the next post, we’ll look at the properties of R744 as a naturally occurring substance.

Table 1: How R744 meets different conditions and criteria