Page 50 - Climate Control News Aug-Sep 2020

Natural Refrigerants
MERITON, ONE OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AUSTRALIA, HAS INTRODUCED HYDROCARBONS TO ITS LATEST PROJECT IN SYDNEY’S WEST.
Meriton adopts
natural refrigerants
AT RIVA PARRAMATTA, which is a boutique riverfront apart- ment complex in a 12-storey building, Meriton has replaced R22 units with 157 split systems provided by Pioneer International.
The units are specifically designed to use hy- drocarbons and have delivered outstanding ef- ficiency results with energy and CO2 emission reduction circa 400,000 kg pa. Over a 10-year period this equates to a reduction of circa 5 mil- lion kg/CO2.
The hydrocarbon refrigerant, which has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 3, has been provided by an Australia-based manufacturer.
The second Meriton development to introduce natural refrigerants is Eminence, a 15-storey tower with 254 apartments located in Zetland, an inner-city suburb of Sydney and part of the City of Sydney municipality.
CCN understands the carbon emission re- duction to be circa 800,000 CO2 kg pa once the project is completed, circa 8 million kg/CO2 over 10 years.
Meriton has adopted natural refrigerants at its latest residential developments in Sydney.
The benefits to customers of these reduced carbon emissions using hydrocarbons can offset the purchase of carbon credits, which typically equals one metric tonne of CO2.
Meriton construction director, David Cremo- na, said using a low GWP refrigerant demon- strates Meriton’s commitment to improving its environmental performance in the residential apartment community.
“We want to adopt the best for our clients and the community,” he said.
For more than 57 years, Meriton has grown to become one of Australia’s most successful resi- dential developers with apartments in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Local councils are also showing an interest in adopting natural refrigerants to help limit global warming and to keep energy bills to a minimum.
Sydney City Council and Parramatta Coun- cil have both been at the forefront of initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and they are now taking a closer look at hydrocarbon refrigerants.
Climate change has dominated the local gov- ernment agenda for a number of years.
At last year’s annual Local Government Asso- ciation (LGA) conference more than a dozen mo- tions were passed urging the federal government to declare a climate emergency.
Double digit growth for CO2
THE GLOBAL TRANSCRITICAL CO2 systems market is set to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.9% from 2020 to 2027.
In its latest report Grand View Research esti- mates the value of the market will top $A159.018 billion ($US110.43 billion) by 2027.
This huge growth is attributed to rising de- mand for air conditioning and refrigeration ap- plications, along with lower operational costs as- sociated with transcritical CO2 systems.
The biggest driver is the global HFC phase- down and F-Gas restrictions.
Other factors influencing transcritical CO2 adoption is a significantly smaller copper piping system, and less refrigerant charge in compari- son to HFC systems, along with high energy effi- ciency in most climates.
By function, the refrigeration segment held the largest revenue share of 67.3% in 2019 as a result of the Kigali Amendment coming into effect in 2019.
Due to its high energy performance, CO2 has also become a popular alternative to HFC-134a and this is likely to continue.
The retail segment accounted for the largest share of 55.8% in 2019 with supermarkets proac- tively adopting environmental best practices in order to build their green credentials.
CO2 heat pumps are expected to register a CAGR of 18.8% from 2020 to 2027 as they offer high service temperature and limited capacity loss.
Heat pumps are increasingly used in residen- tial and commercial developments, particularly in Europe which accounted for 78.4% of the mar- ket in 2019.
Supermarkets are working hard to build their green credentials.
CLIMATECONTROLNEWS.COM.AU
50