Chile has announced a pilot project that will see transcritical CO2 (R744) heat pumps used in industrial refrigeration, with funding provided by the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund.
The project will be developed by the Chilean Ministry of the Environment’s Ozone Unit and implemented with support from the United Nations Development Programme. A public call for funding will be announced shortly, according to the Ozone Unit, and the project will run until May 2028.
“With this approval, we are taking a step toward cleaner technologies in the industrial refrigeration sector,” said Dolores González Puchi, a Project Manager at the Ozone Unit. “The use of CO₂ as a natural refrigerant allows us to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency and strengthen our commitment to the multilateral environmental agreements of the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment.”
In addition to providing funding, Chile the pilot will also develop energy efficiency guidelines for the CO2 heat pumps in industrial refrigeration applications.
“The use of CO₂ as a natural refrigerant allows us to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency and strengthen our commitment to the multilateral environmental agreements of the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment.”
Dolores González Puchi, Project Manager at the Ozone Unit
CO2 refrigeration in Chile
Chile has a small but growing number of CO2 refrigeration systems in both the commercial and industrial sectors. Chile’s first commercial transcritical CO2 refrigeration system in a supermarket was installed in 2017 in a project led by the Ozone Unit.
TEKO Américas has installed more than 100 TEKO transcritical CO2 systems as of December 2024 the majority of which are in Colombia, Peru and Chile. TEKO Américas was formed in 2019 and is a collaboration between Colombian refrigeration systems manufacturer Weston and German refrigeration systems manufacturer TEKO.
On the industrial side, a 1.14MW (324.2TR) pure low-temperature (LT) booster system with a vapor ejector, adiabatic cooler and satellite compressors was installed at an automated logistics warehouse in 2022, with two racks providing 876kW (249.1TR) in LT and 268kW (76.2TR) in medium-temperature capacity. The CO2 racks, manufactured by SCM Frigo, replaced a similar system using R404A and provided a 23% increase in COP.
