Multinational food wholesaler METRO AG is continuing to deploy ejectors in Europe, with its second store in Poland to use a transcritical CO2 ejector system opening on May 21.
The Makro Cash and Carry store (Metro Cash and Carry, a division of METRO AG, operates under the Makro brand in Poland) is located in the city of Czestochowa.
METRO AG’s first store to use an ejector in Poland, opened in May of 2018 in the city of Opole. METRO AG now has a total of 8 stores in Poland that use transcritical CO2.
Olaf Schulze, the director of energy management, investments & technical solutions for METRO AG, provided additional details about the installation in Czestochowa:
The transcritical CO2 system provides cooling for all of the store’s refrigerated cabinets as well as cold rooms for dairy and meat. The system consists of two booster racks for medium and low temperatures with a total cooling capacity of 184.3kW (52.4TR).
Compressors were provided by Bitzer, ejector by Advansor, gas coolers and unit coolers by LUVE and controls by Carel.
Installation was done by local Polish contractor New Age Refrigeration Solutions, while planning was provided by Switzerland-based commercial refrigeration consultancy firm FrigoConsulting.
All refrigerated cabinets were provided by Spanish commercial refrigeration manufacturer Exkal.
F-Gas Exit Program
The CO2 installation is part of METRO AG’s ‘F-Gas Exit Program’ which “aims to phase out f-gases in all METRO stores worldwide by 2030, replacing them with natural refrigerant systems where it is technically and economically feasible to do so.”
So far, the company has 95 CO2 transcrtiical and 108 CO2 subcritical stores worldwide, with rapid progress being seen recently internationally.
Since the beginning of 2018, the company opened two transcritical CO2 stores in Russia, a transcritical CO2 system with an ejector in Bulgaria, its first transcritical CO2 store in Croatia, and will soon have three transcritical CO2 stores in China.
