NATURAL REFRIGERANTS IN FOOD RETAIL - AN OVERVIEW OF MARKET, TECHNOLOGY AND POLICY TRENDS IN NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE, CHINA JAPAN

摘要

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the use of natural refrigerants, with a specificrnfocus on CO_2 and hydrocarbon-based technology, in different world regions and more specifically in Europe,rnNorth America, Japan and China. Europe is a leader when it comes to natural refrigerant use in food retail,rnwith close to 3,000 CO_2 transcritical stores in 2013. This trend is expected to continue with stringent f-gasrnregulatory requirements coming in effect at EU level as of 2015. Japan looks at becoming the second leadingrnregion with more than 600 CO_2-only installations expected by March 2015. In North America and China thernpotential for CO2 stores is largely untapped, nevertheless accelerated adoption of the technology is expectedrnas the regulatory environment changes, components become more available in domestic markets and overallrnsystem costs decrease.