Fluorocarbons are familiarly used in a wide range of applications, such as refrigerants (substances that carry heat) in air conditioners and refrigerators, and in the cold storage industry, many cold storage companies have installed refrigeration equipment with fluorocarbon refrigerants.

As a substance that causes global warming and ozone layer depletion, it has been shown to release greenhouse gases many times more potent than carbon dioxide, and in the recent international trend toward climate change countermeasures and decarbonization, countermeasures are required in Japan and around the world.

Benirei Logistics Osaka Nanko Office, which handles logistics for Marubeni Seafoods Corporation, has decided to switch its refrigeration equipment to large units that use carbon dioxide as the refrigerant and will install these units in 2021.

Carbon dioxide is known as a synonym for greenhouse gas, but it is considered useful as a transitional measure against climate change because it is odorless, non-toxic, non-flammable, safe, and has a global warming potential that is several thousand times lower than that of CFCs. Thus, it is a low-environmental-impact refrigerant. Marubeni Seafoods will actively promote such efforts toward a low-carbon society.

*Ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), air, and hydrocarbons (HC) are representative examples of refrigerants that are substances with low environmental impact and are called “natural refrigerants” because they all exist originally in the natural world.