German Retailer Chooses Three R290 Chillers for Cold Storage Facility

By Tine Stausholm, Oct 28, 2021, 09:20 2 minute reading

The air-cooled liquid coolers have a combined cooling capacity of 900kW.

The three Secon chillers installed with the customer. Photo from Secon.

German manufacturer Secon has installed three of its propane (R290) chillers with a large food retailer near Berlin, for a total of 900kW (255.9TR) cooling capacity at -2°C (28.4°F), the company announced in a post on LinkedIn.

The three R290 units are all air-cooled liquid chillers, with the liquid in this case being brine. They cool the cold storage rooms of the central warehouse of the food retailer, which has not been named.

The three chillers have equal cooling capacities, and each chiller has two refrigeration circuits with around 8kg (17.6lbs) of charge per circuit. The system also includes a hydraulic module, with a 2,500L (660gal) storage tank, and secondary pumps.

The chillers and the hydraulic module are all controlled by a Siemens S7 controller and Secon software.

Air- and water-cooled units

The German retailer chose air-cooled units, but Secon’s R290 chillers also exist in water-cooled versions. In addition to R290 models, Secon also manufactures low-temperature versions using propylene (R1270) and heat pumps using isobutane (R600a).

The capacity of the air-cooled units ranges from 5 to 1,200kW (1.4-341.2TR) while providing system temperatures from 20°C to -30°C (68°F to -22°F). The units have one to four independent refrigerant circuits with low refrigerant charges.

The water-cooled units have capacities ranging from 5 to 900kW (1.4-256TR) for system temperatures from 20°C to -35°C (68°F to -31°F). Here, too, a design with one to four circuits is possible.

Secon’s compact R290 chillers can be operated both as individual devices and in a hydraulic network consisting of several units, like the solution chosen by the German retailer. The FXP chiller employs a multichannel plate heat exchanger, which "serves as an evaporator, condenser and internal heat exchanger in one,” Secon told hydrocarbons21.com before the first Virtual Trade Show for natural refrigerants in September 2020, where the company featured its hydrocarbon systems.

Want to find out more, or have something to say about this story? Join the ATMO Connect network to meet and engage with like-minded stakeholders in the clean cooling and natural refrigerant arena.

By Tine Stausholm (@TStausholm)

Oct 28, 2021, 09:20




Related stories

Sign up to our Newsletter

Fill in the details below