The new release by ATMOsphere, a member of the Clean Cooling Coalition, aims to showcase the recent developments in the European commercial and industrial refrigeration regarding the increasing uptake of natural refrigerants.

Transcritical units are continuously increase, reaching an estimated 57,000 installed as of September 2022.

Stores with centralised systems account for around 50,000 installations, whereas stores using condensing units using carbon dioxide/CO₂ (R744) and industrial sites account for roughly 5,000 and 2,000, respectively.

ATMOsphere has tracked the evolution of the market since 2013, becoming a reference for experts looking for market information on the topic of natural refrigerants. ATMOsphere authors observed an increase of approximately 50% between 2011 and 2022, as the figure below shows. TEKO, CCC member, believes the future of these subsectors is heading towards R744.

However, the market for transcritical systems is still relatively small in relation to the estimated number of European sites where the technology could be deployed.

Hydrocarbons also performed strongly, with an estimated 2.9 systems in Europe alone by December 2022.

Finally, ammonia/NH₃ (R717) low-charge systems also increase on a year-on-year analysis, reaching an estimated amount of 2,850 in industrial sites.