According to China’s State Council Information Office, in addition to providing quality ice rinks suitable for respective sports in the competition venues, it has stayed true to its commitment to host a green games by being eco-friendly in its ice-making.
The refrigerant R507, the HFC blend used as a replacement for R502 and R22 in low and medium temperature refrigeration, was first considered when the organisers started to devise their ice-making plan. While R507 is now banned in Europe due to its extremely high GWP of 3985, it is still widely used across the globe.
After looking into global development trends and application of refrigerants, and having discussions with refrigeration and air-conditioning experts at home and abroad, the organisers decided to implement separate ice-making plans with the support of the International Olympic Committee.
China National Aquatics Centre
Venues that need to make and maintain ice all year round, including the National Speed Skating Oval, use natural refrigerant CO2. By contrast, venues that only occasionally make ice, such as the National Aquatics Centre and the National Indoor Stadium, use traditional refrigerant.
A CO2 transcritical refrigeration system with heat recovery was put forward as an ice-making solution for the National Speed Skating Oval by a panel comprising a dozen academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chinese Academy of Sciences, senior experts from domestic refrigeration associations and representatives of the construction team.
According to Song Jiafeng, an engineer with the Oval’s construction team, using CO2 as a refrigerant can increase ice-making efficiency by 30% and save around two million kilowatts of electricity per year.
When it comes to venues that only need occasional ice-making, the National Aquatics Centre, the National Indoor Stadium and the Wukesong Sports Centre are themselves examples of Beijing’s environment friendliness, as legacies from the 2008 Summer Games. Beijing 2022 organisers had discussions and feasibility researches with equipment suppliers, engineers and service providers of the venues and decided on using R449A, a blend refrigerant with a GWP of 1282.