Carel installs its chillBooster in 100 Delhaize stores
BRUGINE, Padua, Italy, 2 December 2021: Carel has installed its chillBooster solution in 100 stores of Belgian supermarket chain, Delhaize. Making the announcement through a Press release, the company added it has historically developed and proposed adiabatic humidification technology for its high versatility, immediate energy savings and low installation costs.
Carel said the chillBooster exploits the evaporative cooling principle, whereby the air is cooled before entering the condensing unit – that is, the chiller or dry cooler. Atomisation of water into micrometric droplets gives rise to spontaneous evaporation, a process that takes place by using heat from the surrounding air, thus lowering its temperature, the company said.
In the summer, this brings reductions of around 10-15 degrees C in condensing unit air inflow temperature, meaning a lightening of the work load and, consequently, considerable energy savings, the company said.
During the summer of 2019, due to a series of heat waves, many of the Delhaize chain’s stores were unable to get their refrigeration units to work properly, Carel highlighted. In addition to an overall decline in the performance of cold rooms and refrigerated showcases, the higher temperatures caused several units to shut down, with a consequent loss of the goods on display and, in some cases, forcing the stores to close for a few days, it said.
As a result of these difficulties, and the corresponding economic damage, Delhaize started to look for a solution to prevent these situations from being repeated the following summers, the company said.
According to Carel, the chillBooster system immediately proved to be the best choice, and was successfully installed on 120 gas coolers in supermarkets throughout Belgium. The considerable flexibility of the Carel solution made it possible to adapt to the different needs of each of the more than 100 systems where chillBooster was installed, the company said.
The choice to adopt evaporative cooling, the company said, has meant that the existing units meet the original design requirements again, saving energy and bringing an immediate benefit in terms of efficiency.
Epta: ‘Possible to replace HCFC, HFC refrigerants with transcritical CO2 anywhere in the world’
MILAN, Italy, 29 June 2021: Increasingly stringent international regulations are driving a massive transformation in the world of commercial refrigeration – at a European level with the F-gas Regulation and internationally with the Kigali Amendment, commercial refrigeration manufacturer, Epta said through a Press release.
The company said it has already achieved important milestones in the technological development of HFC-free solutions. It added that its Life-C4R (Carbon 4 Retail) Refrigeration project, co-financed by the European Union, confirms the benefits of a natural approach.
Francesco Mastrapasqua, the company’s Institutional Affairs Manager, said: “The three-year Life-C4R – Carbon 4 Retail Refrigeration project was created to sensitise the scientific community, the component suppliers and the retail world’s key players in the use of increasingly efficient solutions. One of the goals is demonstrating how HCFC and HFC refrigerants can be completely replaced with transcritical CO2, anywhere in the world.”
The patented FTE 2.0 Full Transcritical Efficiency and ETE Extreme Temperature Efficiency systems, Epta said, are recognised by the EU as simple and efficient systems and are at the very core of the Life-C4R. “The Life-C4R Plan is essential in validating the FTE and ETE performance in all climatic conditions, in promoting their international diffusion and in certifying both as global and reliable solutions for the future of commercial CO2 refrigeration,” Mastrapasqua said. “The data analysis of the three Italian pilot projects and four replica prototypes in Romania and Spain, installed in collaboration with Epta Iberia and DAAS, will be presented during the Life-C4R Project digital conference, scheduled for July 1.”
The event will be an opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge on the plan’s innovations, lessons learnt and the advantages of the FTE 2.0 and ETE technologies, using the results collected in store by retailers, Epta said, adding that those interested in attending the conference could do so by registering at https://blog.eptarefrigeration.com/en/life-c4r.
FTE 2.0, Epta said, represents the evolution of its patented FTE Full Transcritical Efficiency system. It is recommended at any temperature and is, therefore, a must for obtaining maximum efficiency above 37 degrees C, it said. Simple, efficient, reliable and industrialised, FTE uses flooded evaporators, it said. They allow for the difference between the evaporation temperature and the cabinet’s internal temperature to be significantly reduced and, therefore, for an energy consumption 10% lower than a traditional CO2 system, it claimed.
This is a simple solution, the company said, where it has mechanically added only a multilevel liquid receiver to the standard configuration. On the one hand, FTE reduces the compressors’ discharge temperature, allowing for smooth functioning at high temperatures, it said. On the other hand, it guarantees their perfect lubrication, favouring a longer life cycle of the component itself, it said. FTE also guarantees up to 20% lower installation and maintenance costs, it added. Finally, the FTE 2.0 version, which is integrated into the rack, takes up less space and reduces installation and start-up times, it further added.
The ETE, Epta said, allows for 100% cooling capacity to be reached even in the hottest climates, both in industrial and commercial refrigeration applications. Recommended at temperatures between 30 degrees C and 40 degrees C, it guarantees maximum savings over 40 degrees C, also in combination with FTE, the company claimed. In this case, the transcritical CO2 system is guaranteed to work perfectly at any latitude, even on non-booster systems and in industrial refrigeration, it said. ETE’s “secret” is contained in the refrigerant temperatures’ reduction before its distribution to end users, it said. As it leaves the air exchanger at a value close to the ambient temperature, the gas is further cooled, it said. The system, it added, allows for an almost total disappearance of “flash-gas”, creating significant energy savings over time and smooth functioning even well above 40 degrees C.
