Bryan Kilgore, ERS, for Zondits
Panasonic has released a new 30-horsepower CO2 refrigeration system that they created by linking their 20 hp and 10 hp CO2 systems already in production. This hybrid/cascade system is intended to meet the capacity needs of supermarkets, where their two smaller systems are popular with convenience stores. In Japan the size of CO2 systems is limited by the High Pressure Gas Safety Act. The new 30 hp unit is a simple cascade system with a heat exchanger to supercool the gas from the first-stage system, allowing for increased overall system capacity while still adhering to safety regulations. Connecting two existing models provides a solution for supermarkets that is less expensive than designing a new system from scratch. As discussed in another recent article by r744.com, reposted on Zondits here, CO2 system installations are booming in Japan, but supermarket adoption is lagging behind convenience stores by large margins. This may be the first step in boosting CO2 system adoption in supermarkets to convenience store levels.
Panasonic debuts 30-HP CO2 system
R744, February 16, 2017
Panasonic’s new 30-HP system, on display at this week’s Supermarket Tradeshow in Tokyo, aims to solve the two biggest barriers to CO 2 adoption for supermarkets in Japan: required refrigeration capacity and strict safety regulations.
Until recently, Panasonic’s maximum capacity offering for CO2 systems was 20 HP, which is insufficient for most large supermarkets. Additionally, Japan’s High Pressure Gas Safety Act limits the size of the CO2 system that can be used.
As a result, supermarkets have lagged far behind smaller convenience stores, which have experienced a huge increase in adoption of CO 2 systems in the past couple of years.
The new 30-HP CO2 cascade system aims to help supermarkets moving to CO2 to overcome these barriers.
The system consists of Panasonic’s 20-HP unit, which is linked to a 10-HP unit by what Panasonic has dubbed the ‘capacity increase unit’. The so-called capacity increase unit simply comprises a controller and a heat exchanger, which is used to ‘supercool’ the refrigerant coming from the 20-HP unit.
Linking the two condensing units in this way effectively increases the refrigeration capacity of the gas coming from the 20-HP unit to reach 30-HP.