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Europe - Technology
Transcritical CO2 in Climates Above 40°C? No Problem, Says Epta The Italian OEM has updated its FTE system and introduced an Extreme Temperature Efficiency (ETE) system that optimizes CO 2 refrigeration in very warm environments.
– By Tine Stausholm
I
n March 2017, at the triennial EuroShop trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany, Italian natural refrigerant OEM Epta launched the Full Transcritical Efficiency (FTE) solution for improving the efficiency of CO 2 refrigeration systems in any country with any external temperature. The patented FTE system, Epta said, was based on a very simple design, whereby a low-pressure liquid receiver is used to flood medium-temperature cabinets with liquid CO 2 , eliminating superheat and allowing the evaporation temperature of the cabinets – and, ultimately, the efficiency of the system – to increase. (For more details, see https:// bit.ly/2UcJfo4.)
REPLACING F-GASES WITH CO 2 Life-C4R (Carbon 4 Retail Refrigeration), an Epta project co-financed by the European Union (EU) Life Climate action program, was created to accelerate the dissemination and implementation of very-high-efficiency CO 2 refrigeration systems. The project aims to replace HCFC and HFC refrigerants with CO2 in commercial refrigeration in all climates around the world. In addition, it ultimately aims to create an industrial standard that supports policy makers to further push the use of energy efficient natural refrigeration systems. At the core of the project are Epta’s FTE (Full Transcritical Efficiency) and ETE (Extreme Temperature Efficiency) systems. The goal is for these systems to achieve at least 10% in energy savings, and 20% in installation and maintenance savings, compared to existing CO2 solutions.
“Eliminating superheat by flooding the evaporators is the key to increasing efficiency in all climates and during the whole year,” Francesco Mastrapasqua, Epta’s Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs Manager, said at the time.
In addition to testing the performance of the FTE 2.0 and ETE systems, Epta is doing a full analysis of the new technology’s carbon footprint and environmental performance based on Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) standards. Dissemination of the results is also part of the Life-C4R project’s requirements.
Over the past three years, FTE systems have been widely installed in Europe and the rest of the world, and brought to North America following Epta’s acquisition of Kysor Warren last year. (See “Kysor Warren EPTA US takes on North America,” Accelerate Magazine, June 2019.)
Running from 2018 to 2021, Life-C4R has three partners, Epta Iberia, Epta SpA and DAAS, a Romanian engineering company founded in 1993, which is now a part of the Epta Group.
Accelerate Special Issue #110