The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized 13 companies in the supermarket industry for their achievements reducing emissions of refrigerants. EPA said the awardees are preventing refrigerant leaks, transitioning to climate-friendly refrigerants, and using advanced refrigeration technologies.

Waitrose has recorded a 6.6 percent average energy saving, with as much as 9 percent saved on the high temperature systems, in the first installation of R-449A in a United Kingdom (UK) supermarket.

Plaza Provision Co., a leading food distributor in Puerto Rico, has purchased its fourth thermal energy storage (TES) system from Viking Cold Solutions, and where installed, the TES system has reduced energy consumption by over 30 percent.

Many supermarkets converted their chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigeration systems to hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) systems only to see HFCs targeted for a phaseout. Now, they’re hearing about natural refrigerants, distributed refrigeration, and cascade systems. 

There is always plenty of activity taking place on the HVACR side of the supermarket and restaurant industries. Here’s a quick look at eight items of note.

Festival Foods, a Wisconsin-based chain of more than 20 supermarkets, has designed its new Somers, Wisconsin, location with refrigeration equipment from Zero Zone Inc. that is designed to run on Honeywell’s Solstice® N40 (R-448A).

Utilities representatives and supermarket end-users recently met to develop solutions for incentivizing the use of natural refrigerants in supermarkets and convenience stores. More than 35 participants came together on Aug. 4, at the National Grid corporate offices in Waltham, Massachusetts.