Commercial refrigeration systems are used to keep goods fresh and deep-frozen, especially foodstuffs, but also flowers and pharmaceutical products. They are installed, for example, in specialist food retailers and in catering applications. Nowadays, climate-friendly solutions with natural refrigerants are available for all system technologies.
Fluorinated gases in the atmosphere form degradation products such as trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). TFA enters the water cycle through precipitation and cannot be removed by proportionate means.
Heat pumps are coming into increasing use for heating of buildings and for hot water production in commercial as well as industrial applications. Heat pumps use natural heat in a very energy-efficient way.
According to the VDMA, around 36,500 centralized refrigeration systems and over 540,000 plug-in refrigeration units were installed in German supermarkets, discounter, hypermarkets and other food retail stores in 2017. Fluorinated refrigerants are still the most common in existing systems.
