CO2 as a Refrigerant — Comparison of R744 with Other Refrigerants

This is post number six of a series, and compares CO2 to both traditional and new refrigerants.

R744 vs. Other Refrigerants

Table 1 shows a simple comparison of R744 with other types of refrigerants, including those that are currently commonly used and those that are currently being evaluated for future use. It uses a simple “traffic light” system and employs the common HFCs, such as R404A and R134a as a baseline.

This provides a simple introduction to the options — the situation varies globally, especially in the availability of refrigerants, components and expertise.

For retail applications a well-designed and installed R407A/F system generally has better efficiency than R744 systems. However, the overall environmental performance of R744 systems is better, primarily because of the low GWP in the event of leakage.

Table 1: Comparison of R744 with other refrigerants

Blog post seven in this series will weigh the advantages and disadvantages of R744.

Andre Patenaude
Director – CO2 Business Development, Emerson Climate Technologies

Visit our website for additional information on CO2 Solutions from Emerson. 
Excerpt from original document; Commercial CO₂ Refrigeration Systems, Guide for Subcritical and Transcritical CO₂ Applications.

To read all posts in our series on CO2 as a Refrigerant, click on the links below:

1. Series Introduction
2. Criteria for Choosing Refrigerants
3. Properties of R744
4. Introduction to Trancritical Operation
5. Five Potential Hazards of R744
6. Comparison of R744 with Other Refrigerants
7. R744 Advantages / Disadvantages
8. Introduction to R744 Systems
9. Introduction to Retail Transcritical Systems
10. Retail Booster Systems
11. Introduction to Retail Cascade Systems
12. Introduction to Secondary Systems
13. Selecting the Best System