IIAR’s natural refrigerant show

This year, the International Institute of Industrial Refrigeration (or IIAR) renamed its annual conference from the Industrial Refrigeration Conference & Exhibition to the Natural Refrigeration Conference & Heavy Equipment Expo, reflecting a new emphasis on, not just ammonia, but another natural refrigerant, CO₂. The 2017 event, which took place February 26-March 1 in San Antonio, Texas, did indeed feature many exhibits and sessions that addressed systems using ammonia, ammonia-CO₂, or CO₂ by itself. The following are highlights of some major announcements at the show. Evapco’s packaged chiller Evapco displayed its new Evapcold low-charge packaged ammonia chiller at its IIAR show booth. The chillers are designed to produce temperatures ranging from 10°F to 60°F, with a “sweet spot” between 10°F and 35°F, said Kurt Liebendorfer, vice president, Evapco. MRBRAZ’s AC chiller MRBRAZ & ASSOCIATES, an engineering design firm based in Azle, Texas, has designed and installed low-charge DX ammonia chillers that provide air conditioning in office space at about 10 warehouse locations run by a major U.S. retailer, including four in the past year. Hillphoenix to distribute NXTCOLD OEM Hillphoenix has announced that it will be the sole distributor of NXTCOLD’s ultra-low-charge packaged ammonia units for industrial applications in Canada, Mexico and Latin America, handling manufacturing, marketing and installation. Frick’s low-charge central system Frick Industrial Refrigeration, a division of Johnson Controls, introduced a low-charge ammonia central system that uses “remote distributed condensing” (or RDC) units to substantially reduce the amount of ammonia required in industrial applications. Emerson’s new CO₂ industrial compressors At the IIAR show, Emerson, through its Vilter company, promoted transcritical and subcritical CO₂ compressors for industrial end users. For example, its new 550 series of open-drive reciprocating compressors, to be released in the next two months, will accommodate capacities ranging 50 to 223 TR for low-temperature applications (-20°F evaporating and 23°F condensing). The compressors will come in two, four- and eight-cylinder models. The eight-cylinder model was on display at Vilter’s IIAR show booth.   Read More