In an exclusive interview with Refrigeration Industry, Secop's Head of Sales Europe, Massimo Gentile, provides insights into how the company's groundbreaking compressor technology addresses the increasing demand for high-efficiency hydrocarbon refrigeration solutions across an expanding range of commercial applications.
The commercial refrigeration industry continues transitioning toward more sustainable refrigerants, with hydrocarbons like R290 (propane) gaining significant traction across Europe and beyond. At the forefront of this evolution is Secop, which recently unveiled its SCE Plus compressor series designed specifically to maximize the potential of R290 while addressing key industry challenges.
Refrigeration Industry had the opportunity to speak with Massimo Gentile, Head of Sales Secop Europe, about the development, capabilities, and future roadmap of this innovative compressor series. With laboratory tests showing energy savings of up to 22% compared to current market solutions, the new SCE Plus series represents a significant advancement in hydrocarbon refrigeration technology for food service, food retail, and medical applications.
Refrigeration Industry (Ri): What market needs drove the development of the SCE Plus series?
Massimo Gentile (MG): The SCE Plus Project was initiated to address a critical market need: to deliver a larger-displacement green refrigerant hydrocarbon compressor with premium efficiency performances and a good footprint.
The SCE Plus displacement has been boosted from 21 cm³ to 25 cm³, keeping compact dimensions and limited weight compared to other compressor platforms. It has been specifically designed for food service and food retail applications, as well as monoblocks and medical. To that end, particular care has been taken to address efficiency performances and noise levels, following the increasing customer demand for quieter compressors.
Ri: How does the SCE Plus compare to previous models in energy consumption and cooling performance?
MG: Designed to provide compactness, power, efficiency, and quietness, SCE Plus compressors are optimized for R290. They ensure high energy efficiency (COP: 1,62W/W in Ashrae LBP conditions and 2,01 in Ashrae MBP conditions) and sustainability, granting an energy consumption improvement of up to 22% compared to the current solution in the market.
RI: The IEC 60335-2-89:2022 standard now allows up to 500g of R290. How has this influenced the SCE Plus design and market adoption?
MG: Even though the new IEC 60335-2-89:2022 standard provides guidelines to enhance the hydrocarbon refrigerant charge of up to 500g, most of our customers in the refrigeration industry are still not familiar with the new standard, still containing the refrigerant gas amount within the former limit of 150g. We expect customers to apply the new IEC 60335-2-89:2022 standard within the next two to three years, which is why the new SCE Plus range is already suitable for commercial refrigeration applications designed according to the new directive for hydrocarbon refrigerant charges up to 500g.
RI: The SCE Plus features a patented hermetic plug and integrated electrical components. How do these improve safety, durability, and ease of installation? Were additional safety measures added to handle the larger refrigerant charge?
MG: From the first hydrocarbon platform development, Secop put an extremely high level of care into safety aspects, conscious that releasing flammable refrigerant from the system could generate critical events. Several steps have been taken over the last few years to enhance the robustness of the compressor and the refrigerant gas release outside it. The new patented hermetic plug is the latest development in that direction: the compressor Fusite® is even more protected, making the internal area around the fusite of the compressor wholly sealed.
The new hermetic plug's highest protection level perfectly matches the increase in hydrocarbon refrigerant charge.
Moreover, the new SCE Plus comes with an integrated electrical components kit (start equipment) that is exceptionally compact and pre-assembled on the compressor, making its installation easy and fast. The new starting equipment, which includes a relay, start and running capacitor, PTC, and NTC, has been designed to reduce current picks and voltage spikes. Both these solutions make the SCE Plus more reliable and durable.
RI: Field tests of the SCE25MNDX showed up to 22% energy savings in supermarket coolers. What feedback have you received from early adopters? How are these units performing in real-world settings?
MG: Many customers have been testing the SCE Plus prototype for several months, and it has had great results in terms of cooling capacity, efficiency, and noise level. Testing results are aligned with the expectations defined in the design phase. It makes Secop confident of an easy and fast introduction of these new models in the marketplace; the 220–240V/50Hz versions of SCE Plus compressors are now fully released for mass production; further variants will be available in the following months.
The measurement you are referring to has been done in Secop labs, to demonstrate that the SCE Plus compressor solution allows end users to benefit from better energy consumption and also add various improved features: enhanced robustness and reduced noise. This compressor has the performance to substitute a bigger reciprocating compressor or scroll compressor, offering an improved total cost of ownership.
The tested model is an SCE25MNDX in a four-door supermarket cooler MBP food retail application, replacing a scroll compressor with a reciprocating compressor in a glass-door supermarket reach-in cabinet for better system efficiency and less noise.
RI: What's next for Secop in propane refrigeration?
MG: With the launch of the SCE Plus, Secop can offer an R290 range from 4 cm³ to 25 cm³ displacement. Future developments of this range will be oriented in two different directions: on the one hand, to further extend it to bigger displacement more suitable for refrigerant charges higher than 150g; on the other hand, to widen the compressor offer, in each one of the three platforms (KLF-NLE-SCE composing the fixed speed range, with different efficiency level and voltage variants as well as variants designed according to specific customer, application, and market needs).
In parallel, variable-speed models will be developed, introducing a new cost-effective inverter platform to differentiate the variable-speed compressor offer according to market needs.
One of the main Secop targets is the promotion and growth of the R290 range outside Europe (in the Americas and South Asia, for instance), where the use of this refrigerant is still soft. We also want to strengthen our presence in business sectors such as food service, food retail, and special applications in the more mature European market.
Thanks you so much for the interview!