Australia is at the forefront of development when it comes to low Global Warming Potential (GWP) applications, especially CO2, according to Rainer Grosse-Kracht, chief technology officer at Bitzer.
Outlining the current technology landscape at the Sydney roadshow, Grosse-Kracht talked about the need for high efficiencies at part load conditions and detailed work being done by Bitzer to optimise compressors and extend its program for natural refrigerants.
“For example, we have ammonia compressors, a bigger range of CO2 compressors and we also have approved compressors for HFO and HFO blends,” he said. “CO2 is already well established in the supermarket industry where Bitzer introduced the CO2/134a cascade system in medium temperature and low temperature CO2 applications but development is continuing in this area for 134a replacement.”
Grosse-Kracht said it is a new generation of capacity regulation, which is evident in the CR11 system which is ideal for large cold rooms.
He said the product development focus has been on user-friendliness in product design, increased efficiency and natural refrigerants.
“The current environment is of reduced skills in the workforce but increased product complexity, Bitzer is addressing this problem by ensuring our solutions are user-friendly and easy to maintain. There is no point in having a system that cannot be maintained.
“We have Ecoline for R134a/HFO blends and a compressor series for hydrocarbons. With screw compressors we are looking more into ammonia, particularly for industrial applications. We believe ammonia will play a much bigger role in the future.”