A transcritical CO2 rack refrigeration system is up and running for training purposes at Emerson’s innovation and research center in Suzhou, China, according to Joe Healy, Director of Application Engineering for Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions.
“The [transcritical CO2] rack has been installed, commissioned and is now running every day,” Healy said in an email last month.
Emerson aims to collaborate with the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA) as well as local universities to provide hands-on training for technicians and engineers – though training of external parties is on hold indefinitely at the moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Up to this point the main use of the rack has been for internal purposes and as you can imagine all external contact has been shut down for 2020 so far,” Healy said.
Emerson obtained the SCM Frigo transcritical rack last year from Beijer Ref (which owns SCM Frigo).
Both Emerson and Beijer Ref see the need to increase the availability of transcritical CO2 training in China.
In the past year Beijer Ref completed the installation and commissioning of a CO2 booster rack for training purposes at its China Academy in Wuxi, China. Feedback from technicians has been positive so far, according to the company.
“During the installation and commissioning, our technicians had concerns about handling high pressure systems along with concerns about how the controls system would operate,” said Henry Cao, Sales Manager for Beijer Ref China in an email last month.
“After a few hands-on projects on these systems, they realize that it’s very [much] like the traditional refrigerating systems only with higher pressure and more sophisticated control.”
Beijer Ref is currently working on several transcritical CO2 projects in the region including ice rinks in Hong Kong and Beijing. The company is seeing demand for transcritical CO2 systems in the cold storage and convenience store sectors as well.“We see more and more requests in China for transcritical CO2 systems [and] we believe end users are now looking for green alternatives to move away from traditional HFC plants.”
