Tapping into the growing popularity of CO2 systems in Europe’s food retail sector, Italian multinational Epta will present its product range for this natural refrigerant at Chillventa next week.
The Chillventa tradeshow, the next edition of which takes place in the German city of Nuremberg from 16-18 October 2018, is the world’s biggest gathering of HVAC&R technology manufacturers and enthusiasts.
At present, some 14,000 supermarkets in Europe use CO2 transcritical refrigeration systems, according to February 2018 estimates from sheccoBase, the market development arm of shecco, publisher of this website.
Full Transcritical Efficiency
At the show, Epta will be promoting its Full Transcritical Efficiency (FTE) solution for improving the efficiency of CO2 commercial refrigeration systems in warmer climates, launched at EuroShop in 2017.
“Eliminating superheat by flooding the evaporators is the key to increasing efficiency in warm climates,” said Francesco Mastrapasqua, the group’s sales and marketing manager for refrigeration systems.
The patented FTE solution is based on adding an intelligent liquid receiver. The liquid is delivered from the main liquid receiver to the supermarket’s positive and negative-temperature cabinets.
“It’s an extremely simple solution, based on a basic CO2 booster system. The cabinets are the same as always for CO2. All we add is this intermediate intelligent liquid receiver,” Mastrapasqua said.
The solution works all year round, in all climate types. Testing carried out over a two-year period in Italy demonstrated that is capable of delivering a stable efficiency gain of around 10%.
Water-loop system
The Epta Group will also be showcasing its EptaBlue CO2 integrated waterloop system for medium-sized and small supermarkets equips remote cabinets with their own refrigeration unit, transforming them into plug-ins, by exploiting a water loop that can be cooled by a dry cooler, or connected to a heat pump.
“Housed on top of the cabinet, this simple and smart solution makes it possible to integrate the complete range of cabinets, from vertical to serve-over, even when space for a refrigeration pack is not available,” said Epta in a press release ahead of the show.
