Publications


Global walk-in refrigerator market - forecasts from 2022 to 2027

Walk-in refrigerators are employed to store and preserve food, grocery, and pharmaceutical items from the harmful effects of bacteria and fungus. Walk-in refrigerators ensure and provide more space than standard conventional refrigerators. The large and convenient storage space of walk-in refrigerators makes them suitable for storing food and grocery items. Walk-in refrigerators can be widely seen in supermarkets and large restaurants. The increasing number of supermarkets and hypermarkets is also increasing the need for storing food and decaying commodities in a single preserving facility. The increasing number of restaurants and hotels is boosting the demand for walk-in refrigerators in the market. The need for preserving food items on a large scale is now growing on a daily basis, which also provides scope for the growth of the walk-in refrigerator market. Pharmaceuticals and medicinal equipment are also things, that have to be stored in a well preserved and protected manner. Walk-in refrigerators are also efficiently used in the pharmaceutical and medical fields.

New study shows pathway to phasing down HFCs in India

A new paper in Environmental Research Letters by [Natural Resources Defense Council] NRDC experts and our colleagues lays out a pathway for India to phase down super climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, without infringing on the nation’s effort to scale up access to cooling for millions.

Heatwaves and CO2 refrigeration

This summer’s heatwave in the UK has created havoc for many supermarkets with multiple stories of refrigeration system failures, lost stock and lost sales. All refrigeration technologies have been affected by this extreme weather, but now, with so many retailers using CO2 systems, Daniel Clark owner and MD at Preston-based CO2 systems manufacturer Isentra, asks whether 130bar transcritical systems have now become a necessity?

Is energy efficiency more important than low GWP?

We are all aware of the F-Gas legislation and the drive to low GWP refrigerants but this is only a small part of the overall solution to reduce climate changing emissions. Choosing a low GWP refrigerant does not guarantee a better energy efficiency and in some cases, it may even lead to an increase in the lifetime total emissions from the system if a lower efficiency option is selected. As well as refrigerant choice, there are other actions that can be taken to maintain or improve energy efficiency, reduce total emissions and in most cases they will even pay for themselves over the lifetime of the equipment.

The future of refrigerants

The F-gas regulation is continuously progressing with two new bans having come into effect from 1st January 2022 but most of the implications of the legislation are still hidden by the apparent abundant supply of higher GWP refrigerants.

Incentives and HFC-phase down: what are the most efficacious options?

At the meeting in December of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), glaciologists released some alarming observations: the Antarctic Thwaites glacier is torn by cracks and risks of crumbling completely at time intervals estimated from 5 to 10 years. The news is alarming because this glacier – more or less, as big as Florida – contains enough water to raise sea levels around the world by about half a meter. Already today, the melting of the glacier contributes to 4% of the current annual rise in sea level. Not fortuitously, this glacier is also called “Doomsday glacier”.

Time to transition to A2Ls

We’ve known for years that HFC refrigerants are on borrowed time, and that businesses involved in food production, distribution or retail will need to adopt new ways of working.

Chemical vs natural refrigerants

In both technical and non-technical literature, fluorine-containing (HFC) refrigerants are increasingly referred to as ‘chemical’ or ‘synthetic’ refrigerants in contrast to the so-called ‘natural’ refrigerants. Generally ‘chemical’ is now seen by some as being ‘bad’ and is contrasted with ‘natural’, which implies ‘good’.