A pioneer in the manufacture and export of compact industrial refrigeration equipment and chillers featuring cutting-edge, eco-efficient and sustainable technologies, Greenfrío, which arose from the ashes of the famous Spanish group Ramón Vizcaíno, has been committed from the outset to seeking out the best energy alternatives.
The last few years have been particularly busy for Greenfrío, which specialises in processes for the agri-food industry, particularly sausage, cheese, fish and ham dryers. The company exports its solutions to over 30 countries worldwide, including Switzerland, Canada, the United States, France, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, Cape Verde, Uzbekistan and the Dominican Republic.
As well as having a catalogue with a very wide range of models, it assembles equipment on request according to its customers’ needs. In many projects, it has no hesitation in recommending the Solstice® L40X (R-455A) solution with very low GWP for several reasons, as its director Jean Claude Penades explains:
“HFOs or HFO/HFC blends offer better overall performance and greater efficiency than most conventional fluids or so-called “natural” refrigerants, and they also offer a long-term solution thanks to their GWP of less than 150. Their physical properties are similar to those of HFCs, and they are relatively easy to implement, with no added complexity compared with systems using A1 fluids. What’s more, most of the tools used by installers can also be used with A2Ls. Finally, thanks to their classification as slightly flammable substances, they are a safe choice for most refrigeration applications and are exempt from the Spanish greenhouse gas tax”.
The latest achievement with Solstice® L40X
At the end of 2022, a meat products company in Segovia, a Spanish city known worldwide for its roast suckling pig, was looking to expand its temperature-controlled warehouse (+1 /+2°C). It was looking for innovation to improve the process, efficiency and automatic warehousing, which would enable it to better control stocks, manage orders and launch new pre-packed products.
Greenfrío manufactured two condensing units from its RX range, fitted with micro-channel exchangers, Stream Digital Copeland compressors, EC fans, floating HP condensing, electronic expansion valves to feed the evaporators, and a hot gas defrosting system.
70 kg of R-455A were charged, providing 110.2 kW of refrigeration capacity at a speed of -6°C / +45°C for the new 3,495 m³ robotised chamber.
One of the pioneering installations
In 2020, installer Tecnosol, based in Murcia, a region renowned for its fruit and vegetable growing, approached Greenfrío to build a new 3,200 m3 cold store to store 300 tonnes of grapefruit and oranges, one of the first of its size in the region.
The refrigeration equipment had to meet the user’s requirements in terms of respect for the environment and energy efficiency, and this was perfectly achieved by the Tecnosol / Greenfrío / Climalife alliance with the choice, among others, of R-455A. Thanks to this new installation, the customer has obtained the distinctive CO2 emissions reduction label for his company.
The installation comprises three direct-expansion systems with Copeland piston compressors. Each system is charged with 65 kg of R-455A for a total refrigeration capacity of 165 kW at -2 °C / +45 °C.
“Everyone involved is satisfied with the installation, because the performance is good, the environmental impact is low and the installation is tax-exempt,” says Pedro López, industrial technical engineer at Tecnosol.
Characteristics of thermodynamic systems
