ITALY: Chillers running the low GWP HFO refrigerant R1234ze are providing flexible and efficient refrigeration for a new 30,000m2 warehouse of a leading Italian confectionery manufacturer.

The confectionery company required a system that was able to provide a consistently adequate level of power to handle the constantly varying cooling demand created by the warehouse’s frequent loading and unloading operations. The client also demanded a green solution in line with European directives to ensure utmost energy efficiency.

Italian chiller manufacturer Geoclima and compatriot compressor manufacturer Frascold designed a system consisting of three 480kW (136.4RT) air-cooled chillers, each with four Frascold semi-hermetic screw compressors, four independent refrigeration circuits and multi-channel aluminium condensers for high efficiency. The units were designed in a medium temperature version to produce glycol at -6 °C using R1234ze.

The refrigeration circuits are intelligently managed by a PID controller to ensure that only the necessary refrigeration circuits and compressors are activated as required by the specific needs of the warehouse. 

“Geoclima and Frascold created a winning synergy as part of which we redesigned the system and compressor in order to achieve the best possible configuration, best exploiting the low pressures and density of the Honeywell Solstice ze refrigerant with a view towards maximising efficiency,” said Geoclima Group CEO Paolo Ferraris. 

The collaboration between Frascold and Geoclima for the study and development of HFO solutions began in 2012, when the two companies developed one of the first chillers in the world to use this type of refrigerant.