Danish manufacturer Unic Air has partnered with the Danish Technology Institute (DTI) and other stakeholders to develop an air handling unit (AHU) with a reversible CO2 (R744) heat pump, according to Christian Heerup, Senior Consultant at DTI.
A prototype of the unorthodox system, dubbed HVACO2, is currently being developed by the manufacturer, with a plan to install the unit at a Danish office building by the end of 2023 for real-world testing and demonstration, he explained.
To date, the concept has been lab tested for performance, efficiency and reliability.
Heerup introduced the HVACO2 during his presentation in a heat pump session at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit on natural refrigerants. The conference took place last November in Brussels and was organized by ATMOsphere, publisher of R744.com.