Advansor, part of Dover Food Retail and Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV), announced the official launch of the SteelXL — a high-capacity CO2 (carbon dioxide, R-744) heat pump designed for commercial and industrial heating applications. The SteelXL targets commercial heating markets including food processing, district heating, industrial process heat, and large-scale building applications where conventional heat pump technology cannot deliver the combination of high capacity and high output temperatures that demanding applications require.
CO2 as a refrigerant is fundamentally different from the HFC refrigerants (R-410A, R-454B) that dominate residential HVAC. It has a global warming potential of 1 — the baseline against which all other refrigerant GWPs are measured — making it the most environmentally benign refrigerant available. It is also non-toxic and non-flammable. The engineering challenge with CO2 is that it operates at much higher pressures than HFC refrigerants, requiring robust system design. Advansor has been engineering CO2 refrigeration systems for commercial applications for more than two decades.
What Makes CO2 Heat Pumps Different
CO2 heat pumps operate on a transcritical cycle — a refrigeration thermodynamic cycle that is distinct from the subcritical cycles used by HFC refrigerants. In transcritical operation, CO2 passes through its critical point, enabling it to deliver significantly higher output temperatures than HFC heat pumps:
• HFC heat pumps: Typically deliver hot water at 55°C to 65°C maximum output temperature. This limits their application to space heating and low-temperature domestic hot water.
• CO2 transcritical heat pumps: Can deliver hot water at 80°C to 90°C and, in some configurations, process heat at temperatures approaching 120°C. This enables CO2 heat pumps to serve industrial and commercial applications where conventional heat pumps cannot reach.
• Efficiency characteristics: CO2 heat pumps achieve high efficiency when recovering waste heat from processes or cold environments. In cold climates where ambient air temperatures are low, CO2 often outperforms HFC heat pumps because its transcritical cycle characteristics are less sensitive to ambient temperature.
Advansor's SteelXL, launched by Dover Food Retail, is a high-capacity CO2 transcritical heat pump capable of delivering output temperatures up to 80-90°C for commercial heating and industrial process applications — a category of natural refrigerant technology growing rapidly as the HFC phasedown and industrial decarbonisation mandates increase demand for high-temperature heat pump solutions.
The Industrial Heat Pump Market Context
The SteelXL addresses a specific and growing market: industrial and commercial process heat. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of global industrial energy consumption is for process heat below 150°C — a temperature range that high-temperature heat pumps can increasingly address. In Europe, where industrial decarbonisation policy is more advanced, high-temperature CO2 heat pumps are already being deployed at scale in food processing, dairy, brewing, and district heating applications.
The US industrial heat pump market is earlier in development — but the same policy drivers that accelerated European adoption are building in the US. Inflation Reduction Act incentives for industrial energy efficiency, EPA pressure on industrial carbon emissions, and the rising cost of natural gas relative to electricity are all making the economics of high-temperature heat pumps increasingly attractive in US industrial applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Advansor SteelXL?
The SteelXL is a high-capacity CO2 transcritical heat pump launched by Advansor, part of Dover Food Retail. It delivers high-temperature output (up to 80-90°C) for commercial heating and industrial process applications where conventional HFC heat pumps cannot achieve the required temperatures.
What are the advantages of CO2 refrigerant in heat pumps?
CO2 has a global warming potential of 1 — the most environmentally benign refrigerant available, non-toxic and non-flammable. CO2 transcritical heat pumps deliver higher output temperatures than HFC heat pumps (80-90°C versus 55-65°C), enabling industrial and commercial applications that HFC technology cannot reach. They also perform well in cold climates where HFC efficiency degrades.
What is Advansor?
Advansor is a Danish CO2 refrigeration and heat pump technology company, part of Dover Food Retail and Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV). The company has more than two decades of experience engineering CO2 refrigeration systems for commercial and industrial applications, primarily in European food retail and industrial markets.
