SECURING SAFETY, ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND LONG-TERM INVESTMENT ALONG THE FOOD COLD CHAIN BY USING NATURAL REFRIGERANTS: A COMPARATIVE MARKET, POLICY AND TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS OF NORTH AMERICA, JAPAN, CHINA AND VIET NAM

摘要

Natural refrigerants are gaining increasingly more attention from the global HVAC&R industry in variousrnapplications. The use of ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and to a lesser extent air as refrigerants inrnindustrial cooling and refrigeration equipment has been successfully proven up to a mainstream level in thernfood cold chain, including along the entire food cold chain food production and cold storage, especially inrnEurope, North America, China and Japan. However, other, mostly developing countries, such as Viet Namrnhave yet to adopt such technologies in an attempt to leapfrog high-GWP solutions that are expected tornincreasingly become subject to international and national use restrictions. Market trends and technologyrndevelopments related to natural refrigerants in the food cold storage sector in four different regions arernanalysed while considering the impact of regulatory initiatives on current and future technology choices.