CO₂ Transcritical Racks for Supermarkets & Industrial Refrigeration

Our team at CO2 Refrigeration Systems (CRS) has collectively designed, tested and serviced CO₂ racks for decades, delivering transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems for supermarkets and industrial facilities spanning the globe. As you consider site design or prepare for a full-site refurbishment, we are your partner for process cooling, cold storage and retail refrigeration needs. CRS is the trusted supplier of CO₂ booster refrigeration systems for contractors and technical buyers seeking systems to check all their boxes. Safe, reliable, serviceable and efficient, our state-of-the-art transcritical CO₂ systems are a turning point for industrial and commercial customers desiring superior performance and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to traditional refrigerants.

Why use transcritical CO₂ systems?

CO₂ is the world’s safest natural refrigerant. Still, the high operating pressure required to maintain CO₂ as a working fluid is a common concern for those transitioning from traditional refrigerants. Transcritical CO₂ systems are designed to ASME standards to accommodate all ambient conditions while reducing regulatory risks and ensuring world-class system performance.

In fact, CO₂’s high operating pressures eliminate many challenges traditional refrigerant systems face. Oil flows more freely throughout a CO₂ transcritical system, minimizing issues like oil logging and oil starvation known to degrade efficiency for systems using ammonia or HFCs. Ammonia systems experience internal corrosion from the caustic nature of the working fluid and its susceptibility to cavitation, requiring part replacement every couple of years, while non-caustic CO₂ booster refrigeration systems don’t carry this maintenance overhead. HFC refrigerants break down (fractionate) over time, causing a direct and sustained impact to system efficiency and component wear. As a result, a transcritical CO₂ system’s TCO is significantly lower than that of an ammonia or HFC-based system.

Cascade systems have historically been one solution to overcome CO₂’s ambient limitations while maintaining subcritical operation. However, cascade designs call for a secondary refrigeration circuit (typically ammonia or HFCs) to condense CO₂. Our transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems allow for all of the benefits of using CO₂ as a refrigerant without the secondary refrigerant, complex componentry and losses from inefficient heat exchanges. Contact CRS to take advantage of all our CO₂ transcritical racks have to offer today.

 

What is the difference between a subcritical and transcritical CO₂ refrigeration cycle?

The transcritical refrigeration cycle enables CO₂ to operate seamlessly between its subcritical and supercritical states. Transcritical racks use a gas cooler in place of a traditional condenser to maintain performance even in the harshest ambient environments. 

In a subcritical CO₂ refrigeration cycle, the CO₂ compressor discharge gas is condensed into a liquid through a heat exchanger (condenser), and the refrigeration cycle follows a standard vapor compression refrigeration cycle.

In a transcritical CO₂ refrigeration cycle, the CO₂ compressor discharge gas is not condensed into a liquid through a heat exchanger. Instead, the heat exchanger (gas cooler) merely cools the gas, and a high-pressure expansion valve expands the outlet gas into a liquid. This allows CO₂ to be the sole working fluid for a safer, more reliable refrigeration system.

At CRS, we pride ourselves on our future-proof transcritical racks, built around CO₂ as a safe, natural refrigerant. Our systems will outlive numerous regulatory changes impacting traditional refrigerants and ammonia across the globe. Contact CRS for more information on transcritical CO₂ refrigeration to stay ahead of the curve.

Our Transcritical CO₂ Booster Refrigeration Systems

The traditional costly approach of selecting refrigeration systems from catalog offerings often results in excess capacity that negatively impacts system efficiency. At CRS, we customize the capacities of our transcritical CO₂ racks to match your operational needs. 

We have established a consultative process centered around simplicity and serviceability to design a system that secures the highest return on your investment. Our CO2 booster refrigeration systems are designed through the lens of first-hand field experience. CRS’ engineering team comes from field service and installation roles, so the value of serviceability is core to our designs. CRS is brand-agnostic with strong ties to all of the major control manufacturers. We’re happy to assist with specifying a control system, taking into consideration your maintenance team, system performance and budget.

CRS places a strong focus on constructing systems with commercially available components to ensure field maintenance can be performed without delay. Our customers count on CRS for optimal performance and industry-leading uptime, with an expectation that the system will be in service for decades. Whether sourcing for an industrial or commercial project, CRS will tailor a transcritical CO₂ booster refrigeration system to your operational needs. We’ll explore additional opportunities to integrate your air conditioning and heating, process heating and hot water sources with the transcritical refrigeration cycle to free up OpEx dollars for the things that matter most to you. CRS has you covered with a full range of capabilities to suit your needs, including:

• Cooling capacity: typical range from 170 kBTU/hr (50 kW) to 40 MBTU/hr (11.7 MW) and beyond
• Size: CO₂ racks, gas coolers and package units are customizable to fit your unique space limitations
• Pressure: typical ratings include 870 PSIG (60 bar), 1,305 PSIG (90 bar) and 1,740 PSIG (120 bar)
  • We standardize on 60 bar designs for LT & MT applications, maximizing opportunities to select common components across suction groups
• Construction material: stainless steel, Wieland-K65 and Streamline® XHP 
  • Designed to suit your team’s area of expertise: brazing or welding
  • High-pressure copper alloys, such as K65 and XHP are:
    • cost-effective
    • brazable
    • rated up to 1,740 PSIG (120 bar)
• Indoor or outdoor units with ingress protection (IP) rated enclosures to withstand environmental conditions in any climate 
• Parallel or ejector systems for high-ambient applications
• Integrate air conditioning with refrigeration and manage loads independently
  • Air conditioning controlled independent of refrigeration for high-efficiency operation
  • Get the entire building envelope on one integrated CO₂ system without impact to refrigeration or AC efficiency
• Heat reclaim for comfort, hot water and industrial processes
• Hot-gas defrosting for evaporator coils
• Onboard leak detection and additional input capacity for leak detectors throughout your facility
• Uninterrupted power supply (UPS) in case of power outage
• Extended warranty

Contact CRS to Discuss Our Custom CO₂ Transcritical Racks

CO₂ Refrigeration Systems for Supermarkets

We are your one-stop-shop for CO₂ transcritical racks and commercial cooling systems. Our Supermarket CO₂ Booster Systems and Integrated HVAC/R Solutions are built for retailers seeking safe, simplified, environmentally-conscious cooling processes throughout their store. Our CO₂ refrigeration systems for supermarkets integrate the building air conditioning, heating and refrigeration systems to create a common cooling and heating source. This approach simplifies serviceability, minimizes your business’ carbon footprint and reduces your operating expenses over time. Ask CRS for a custom, compatible gas cooler to pair perfectly with your CO₂ refrigeration system.

CO₂ Racks for Industrial Refrigeration

For industrial applications, CRS offers customized Direct Expansion (DX)  and Pumped Liquid CO₂ Booster Refrigeration Systems. Our DX Booster Systems are an excellent alternative to ammonia-based DX systems, providing competitive energy efficiency and superior safety in a substantially smaller footprint.  

Pumped Liquid CO₂ Booster Systems, or liquid overfeed systems, create a reservoir of chilled liquid (-40°F) for industrial processes such as spiral freezers and blast chilling. Compared to ammonia and glycol, this method of cooling provides superior energy efficiency because CO₂’s non-toxic, non-caustic nature can be leveraged for longer uptime in the facility. Offering ultimate flexibility for your design and procurement phases, our transcritical CO₂ racks and gas coolers can be sold separately or as a packaged unit. To minimize work in the field, our outdoor packaged units provide the advantage of an integrated rack and gas cooler that is piped and tested by our manufacturing team to consolidate the transcritical refrigeration cycle.

Transcritical CO₂ for Heat Reclaim

Looking to replace a gas boiler in your processing facility? Seeking cost savings for space heating at your storefront? With discharge temperatures much higher than traditional refrigerants, heat recovery from a transcritical CO₂ refrigeration system provides substantially more recoverable heat. In contrast with traditional systems, transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems provide significant heat reclaim capacity in the winter months, when it matters most. Contact CRS to learn more about our heat reclaim refrigeration systems to capitalize on free heating for your industrial and commercial applications.

Transcritical CO₂ for Air Conditioning

Why pay to maintain an air conditioning unit when you’re already maintaining a refrigeration system? Transcritical CO₂ refrigeration is uniquely capable of integrating air conditioning and refrigeration systems, consolidating two into one, without sacrificing high-efficiency performance. Contact CRS to learn more about our combined air conditioning and refrigeration systems for convenient, cost-effective cooling.

Ask How We Can Tailor Our Transcritical CO₂ Racks to Your Needs!

CRS is your trusted partner for commercial and industrial refrigeration, and our team is excited to assist you with your transcritical CO₂ refrigeration needs. Contact CRS to learn more about our engineered-to-order CO₂ booster refrigeration systems or to discuss full-system designs and our comprehensive suite of industrial and commercial cooling systems. 

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