Huayi Compressor Barcelona covering all capacities with R290

As hydrocarbons become increasingly prevalent in most household and commercial applications, Huayi Compressor Barcelona is looking to cover all cooling capacities in these sectors by extending its established R290 range by creating the S and B propane ranges.

“We offer the most complete range of compressors for any applications,” Pedro Olalla, sales director at Huayi Compressor Barcelona, told hydrocarbons21.com.

This means they now have a complete range of compressor models designed for working with R290 in the U, B and S ranges and standard ranges L, P and X.

Propane can be used for everything…

The addition of the new propane compressors means the range now covers the complete commercial refrigeration market, from small freezers and bottle coolers in the B range to large freezers in the S range.    

The compressor manufacturer still has many offerings of R600a (isobutane) for smaller applications but realises that many OEMs only want to work with one refrigerant.

“For many who don’t want to handle many refrigerants, you can use R290 [for all],” Olalla pointed out. 

The R290 B range also increases the previous range from 2.20 cc to 4.50 cc in terms of displacement for the Low Back Pressure (LBP) models, offering better efficiency and size reduction.

For the S range the displacement is now up to 34 cc, helping to widen the application range for propane.

“This improves the efficiency [in comparison] to R134a by 10-20% and extends the range as well,” Olalla said. 

…but this will depend on charge limits

Olalla accepts that the active range of propane will ultimately depend on regulation.

Charge limits fall under the remit of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) working group on household and similar electrical appliances, which currently sets the limit at 150g for hydrocarbons.

Some end users would like to see this limit increase. “Some still want big systems using R290,” Olalla said.

Countries are free to go beyond what the IEC suggests. The UK has been using charges above 150g in commercial refrigeration units for a while, and is ready to go higher still.

A working group in the IEC’s household and similar electrical appliances group will recommend a new maximum flammable refrigerant amount for appliances, most likely by the end of the year.

To efficiency and beyond!

Huayi will also improve efficiency by introducing variable speed compressors onto the market in more of its ranges. “We will release more variable speed models during the second half of this year,” Olalla said.