Sprouts Market Opens CO2-based Store in Georgia

Sprouts Farmers Market opened a store in July in Dunwoody, GA, with the first CO₂-based, HFC-free supermarket refrigeration system in a warm weather market in North America.

The store runs on an Advansor transcritical booster system that eliminates hydro-fluorocarbons. Retailers and engineers in North America have questioned whether a CO₂ transcritical system — described as the cleanest and most environmentally friendly HFC-free option for commercial refrigeration — could be operated efficiently in areas where the ambient temperature climbs above 85F. Energy efficient, economical transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems are normally limited to colder climates due to the limitations of air-cooled gas coolers. The key to Sprouts’ new system is a proprietary Trillium Series hybrid evaporative condenser by Baltimore Air Coil.

“We worked with Baltimore Air Coil to develop a new product that’s a hybrid evaporative condenser adapted for use with CO₂,” says Scott Martin, director, sustainable technologies at Hillphoenix. “Evaporative condensers offer energy savings by providing lower system condensing temperatures than conventional air-cooled or water-cooled condensing systems.”  

This trend-setting system was installed with the help of T&O Refrigeration, Fayetteville, GA, the ContractingBusiness.com 2014 Commercial Refrigeration Contractor of the Year (read their story here). T&O President Steve Tibbetts describes the project as a normal startup.

“Once your ‘A’ players get their arms around it, they realize the only difference is higher pressure,” Tibbetts says.