Honeywell today announced that Food City has installed Honeywell’s Solstice® N71 (R-471A) refrigerant in its Kodak, Tennessee store. The solution is being used to cool the store’s beverage line-up while helping increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Solstice N71 is Honeywell’s newest low-global-warming-potential (GWP), non-ozone-depleting, non-flammable refrigerant based on hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) technology. The solution is optimized for use in supermarkets, cold storage warehouses, industrial process refrigeration, ice rinks and convenience and drug stores. Honeywell assisted Food City with the installation in collaboration with Hussmann, Emerson and Danfoss.
“With Solstice N71 up and running in Food City’s Kodak, Tennessee store, customers will have access to fresh, chilled beverages at their convenience, made possible by refrigerant technology that is improving energy efficiency, reducing impact on the environment and keeping people safer,” said John Keating, vice president and general manager, Stationary Refrigerants, Honeywell Advanced Materials. “Solstice N71 is a major advancement for the refrigeration industry that is helping our customers accelerate their environmental transformation goals without sacrificing performance.”
Solstice N71 is the supermarket industry’s first and only non-flammable HFO refrigerant blend with a GWP of less than 150 for new equipment in medium temperature applications. The solution enables medium temperature commercial refrigeration systems to provide an energy efficiency improvement of 30% compared to carbon dioxide (CO2) and 13% versus R-404A. It can be utilized in a variety of system architectures and does not require an elite skillset for servicing, offering a lower total cost of ownership. Solstice N71 also does not operate at high pressures, which reduces the risk of system failures and unexpected related expenses.
The solution will help Food City comply with regulations to phase-down the production and consumption of high-GWP hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants, including those established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, the California Air Resources Board, and the European Union Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulation stemming from the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
Honeywell has invested more than one billion dollars in research, development and new capacity for its Solstice technology, having anticipated the need for lower-GWP solutions to combat climate change more than a decade ago. The product line, which helps customers lower their greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency without sacrificing end-product performance, includes refrigerants for vehicle, commercial and residential air conditioning applications, heat pumps; blowing agents for insulation; aerosol propellants; solvents for cleaning solutions; and are being evaluated for use in metered-dose inhalers.
Using Honeywell Solstice products has helped avoid the potential release of the equivalent of more than 295 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, comparable to eliminating emissions of more than 62 million cars.
