Castel sees U.S. CO₂ market still behind Europe

For Italian component maker Castel, the difference between the North America market for CO₂ refrigeration technology and the European market remains considerable.

Most of the commercial refrigeration being built in Europe is now with CO₂, said Alessandro Farina, R&D application manager at Castel, at the AHR Expo in Chicago in January. “There is a growing number of [companies] selling CO₂. CO₂ products have a strong growth rate every year.”

But the company’s sales so far in the U.S. market have been slow.

“There is a growing number of [companies] selling CO₂. CO₂ products have a strong growth rate every year.”

Alessandro Farina, Castel

“Customers in Canada are buying faster than in the U.S.,” he said, though customers who came to the component supplier’s booth were interested in understanding CO₂ further.

At the AHR Expo, Castel showed a full range of its CO₂ transcritical products like ball valves, expansion valves, coils, connectors and check valves.

Farina noted that warmer European countries, such as Italy, that have not installed as many CO₂ systems as countries in Northern Europe, will soon do so in a big way.

“In Italy it has become more expensive to make old [HFC based systems] than CO₂ ones,” he said. “The Southern European market is growing very fast.”