Copeland’s new medium-temperature transcritical CO2 (R744) scroll compressor facilitates the development of smaller, distributed CO2 racks and condensing units that could expand the range of end users employing CO2 refrigeration, including convenience stores.
“It gives system designers the flexibility to reduce the footprint of their distributed equipment,” said Andre Patenaude, Director, Solution Strategy for Copeland, a U.S.-based component manufacturer. Patenaude shared these remarks on February 11 at a natural refrigerants training event in Poughkeepsie, New York, hosted by the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC).
“Every manufacturer can make smaller CO2 racks now, and it opens the door for CO2 condensing units in the capacity ranges that these compressors provide,” he added. Those capacities range between 15,000 to 130,000BTUs (1.25 and 10.8TR/4.4 and 38kW).
Copeland has manufactured a low-temperature subcritical CO2 scroll compressor globally for about 15 years. In Europe, the company introduced a medium-temperature CO2 transcritical scroll compressor in 2021, followed by a CO2 outdoor condensing unit line with scroll compressors for the European market in May of 2025.
In North America, Copeland announced the launch of the medium-temperature transcritical CO2 scroll compressor in December. In February, this compressor made Copeland the winner of the 2026 AHR Expo (International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition) Innovation Award in the refrigeration category.
Remodeling option
In addition to being suited for smaller supermarkets and convenience stores, the new medium-temperature scroll compressors can help conventional supermarkets with partial remodeling. “They might not want to rip and replace everything in their store, but they’ve got a lineup of cases that are old,” said Patenaude. “They can do a CO2 lineup with some low temp, some medium temp, in a small-footprint piece of equipment that the scrolls enable.”
The scrolls also allow conventional stores to install several small CO2 racks or condensing units in a distributed architecture rather than in a single centralized rack in a machine room, noted Patenaude.
“It gives system designers the flexibility to reduce the footprint of their distributed equipment.”
Andre Patenaude, Copeland
The new medium-temperature CO2 scroll compressors also feature a brushless permanent magnet (BPM) motor instead of an induction motor, which is limited in speed. The BPM motor’s speed ranges from 20 to 90Hz (1,200 to 5,400rpm). “Designers now have a really wide range of capacity modulation,” said Patenaude. The compressors are also available in fixed speed.
The new scroll compressor offers dynamic vapor injection (DVI), a process that allows high-pressure refrigerant gas to be digested through the compression cycle, eliminating the need for parallel compression, said Copeland.
At the NASRC training event, Copeland exhibited a transcritical CO2 rack with a low-temperature scroll compressor and a medium-temperature semi-hermetic reciprocating compressor. The new medium-temperature scroll could replace the reciprocating compressor.
