Modelling of a real CO2 booster installation and evaluation of control strategies for heat recovery applications in supermarkets

•A framework to calculate heat recovery from CO2 refrigerated systems is presented.•Substantial heat is recovered but it does not match the instantaneous heating load.•Useful heat recovered in a UK supermarket case study ranges from 28.7% to 43.2%.•Heat recovery in normal conditions reduced natural gas use by 48% and costs by 6.2%.•The most efficient heat recovery strategy reduces energy use by 32%. This paper compares and quantifies the energy, environmental and economic benefits of various control strategies recovering heat from a CO2 booster system in a supermarket for space heating with the purpose of understanding its potential for displacing natural gas fuelled boilers. A theoretical steady-state model that simulates the behaviour of the CO2 system is developed and validated against field measurements obtained from an existing refrigeration system in a food-retail building located in the United Kingdom. Five heat recovery strategies are analysed by modifying the mass flow and pressure level in the condenser. The model shows that a reduction of 48% in natural-gas consumption is feasible by the installation of a de-superheater and without applying any advanced operating strategy. However, the CO2 system can fully supply the entire space-heating requirements by adopting alternative control strategies, albeit by penalising the coefficient of performance (COP) of the compressor. Results show that the best energy strategy can reduce total consumption by 32%, while the best economic strategy can reduce costs by 6%. Findings from this work suggest that heat recovery systems can bring substantial benefits to improve the overall efficiency of energy-intensive buildings; nevertheless trade-offs need to be carefully considered and analysed on a site by site basis before embarking on such initiatives.