Integration of CO2 refrigeration and tri-generation systems for supermarket Applications

The environmental impact of supermarkets is significant not only because of the indirect effect from CO2 emissions at the power stations but also due to the direct effect arising from refrigerant leakage to the atmosphere. One approach through which the overall energy efficiency can be increased and the environmental impacts reduced, is through the integration of CO2 refrigeration and trigeneration systems where the refrigeration generated by the trigeneration system is used to condense the CO2 refrigerant in a cascade arrangement. Such a system is being investigated by Brunel University and a number of commercial organisations in the UK. This paper presents results of simulation studies that investigate the seasonal energy and environmental performance of such a system in a medium size supermarket.