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<\/p>\nSpecialising in industrial refrigeration and, more specifically, the food storage sector since it was founded in 2007, Quercy R\u00e9frig\u00e9ration works very closely with its customers and is keen to offer them eco-friendly solutions for the future. For Beno\u00eet Duparc, the company\u2019s director, this approach is of paramount importance when changes are being made to regulations on refrigerants.<\/p>\n
Many of his customers are producers and exporters of fruit and vegetables, and more recently include Planavergne, a family-run busi\u00adness based in Escazals in the Lot region of France. Founded in 1937 and focusing largely on apple production, this company yields 3,500 tonnes of the fruit from September to June every year and exports throughout the world.<\/p>\n
The apples are stored for between four and 12 months in cold rooms in a controlled atmos\u00adphere: nitrogen is injected to lower the oxygen level and the CO2 content is regulated to pre\u00advent asphyxiation and to delay the ripening process. \u00a0The storage facility has more than 12 cold rooms, most of which are cooled by units operating on R-404A refrigerant gas. However, two of these rooms were still relying on R-22 units, urging Mr Planavergne to issue an invitation to tender for replacements, in view of the ban on HCFCs in Europe.<\/p>\n
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Various solutions considered with fierce competition.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n When negotiations started, the costing process was based on a unit with three direct expansion-type compressors and two cubic evaporators for supplying two 1,400 m3 cold rooms, each storing around 300 tonnes of apples at +1\u00b0C.<\/p>\n Quercy R\u00e9frig\u00e9ration studied the CO2 solution but found it unsuitable for fruit storage. Firstly, the evaporating temperatures would be quite high, varying from +4\u00b0C to +8\u00b0C and exceeding the operating range for currently available compressors. Secondly, the most intense operating period would be during the summer and autumn, when the CO2 output would be at its lowest and, finally, the investment cost would be very high.<\/p>\n An initial costing was subsequently drawn up for R-134a versus R-407F, but Planavergne considered these solutions to be too temporary and inconsistent with their investment plan. The aim was to find a long-term solution to avoid the need for \u2018repeated retrofits\u2019.<\/p>\n In response to this, Quercy R\u00e9frig\u00e9ration found the innovative solution of using R-1234ze<\/a>\u00a0with a suitable control system. \u201cRivalling the choices offered by our competitors, we proved to our customer that this solution would also save energy, by incorporating our own specially designed and patented hygrometry control system for fruit storage rooms.<\/p>\n So changing the refrigerant wouldn\u2019t be the only way to reduce electricity consumption,\u201d said the installation engineer. Planavergne was immediately convinced.<\/p>\n Solstice\u00ae<\/sup> ze<\/a>, the long-term alternative<\/strong><\/p>\n With a GWP of less than 1, this pure HFO molecule provides a long-term eco-friendly alternative. \u00a0Solstice\u00ae ze, which is not subject to F-Gas regulations or the annual declaration applicable to traditional refrigerants, reduces direct CO2 emissions by 99.6% and helps equipment comply with directives on eco-design. With an ASHRAE A2L classification, this refrigerant is mildly flammable but can be handled as easily as traditional fluids. According to Duparc, however, this particular benefit had no influence over the choice of solution.<\/p>\n \u201cThese days, we\u2019re used to working with toxic products such as NH3 or high-pressure fluids like CO2. Our engineers have the experience, so it\u2019s simply a matter of working calmly and safely.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n A new eco-friendly facility\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Work began last June, once a new, Pecomark stainless steel unit with a frame had been selected. The unit has three Bitzer semi-hermetic compressors and a speed regulator, which is connected to one of the compressors and to the condenser fans. The two evaporators, manufactured according to very precise specifications and incorporating the control system developed by Quercy R\u00e9frig\u00e9ration, are supplied with Carel\u2019s electronic stepping regulators for R-1234ze<\/a>\u00a0refrigerant.<\/p>\n The unit went into operation without any setbacks after more than 200 kg of R-1234ze<\/a>\u00a0had been loaded into the facility. As the piping was made of stainless steel, this would minimise any leaks over the long term. \u00a0\u201cWhen we commissioned the unit, it was just like loading any other refrigerant into a direct expansion-type system. \u00a0There was really no difference, apart from the fact that the operating pressures were very low, but it was also quite pleasant to work under those conditions,\u201d said Beno\u00eet Duparc.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/uploadsassetsCase_studiesCC9Solsticeze_pommes_cs1.png\")
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