By Héctor Gómez Pérez
Between 1 and 12 December 2008, the XIV UN Climate Change Conference was held in the Polish city of Poznan, with 182 countries taking part. This meeting was the prelude to next year's conference to be held in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, in which an agreement will be signed that will replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, and that represents the commitment of global actors in the face of polluting gases and climate change.
This shows the importance that the issue of environmental care has acquired and the commitment that various industries have assumed to reduce the negative impact on the environment. The CVAC/R industry has not been the exception and has been promoting the use of certain equipment and refrigerants for this purpose. Precisely this article aimed to explore the advances and the state of the market in terms of compressors for refrigeration equipment and was supported by Eduardo Seufferheld Zimmer, global sales manager of Carlyle OEM; Roberto Sánchez Valladares, general director of Bitzer México S. de R.L. de C.V. and Fernando Pujalt, wholesale marketing manager for Latin America of Emerson Climate Technologies.
Compressors on the agenda
For Fernando Pujalt, the characteristics that compressors must currently have are that they must use refrigerants that reduce possible damage to the environment, be leak-proof, efficient, reliable and silent. For Eduardo Seufferheld they must have a perfect combination of reliability and efficiency in energy consumption, all because "it is a very important issue for many users, especially when large quantities of food with a high monetary value are stored and an important refrigeration process has to be maintained".
Roberto Sánchez, for his part, explained in the following way the specifications that each of these equipment must have:
- Cost-effective: Its initial cost, operating cost, and output value should offer value to the equipment owner.
- Efficient: energy and maintenance consumption must be consistent.
- Environmental: it must be able to be used with environmentally friendly refrigerants, with minimal use of oil and offer facilities in its repair.
- Compact: must have an optimal size.
- Quiet: It should offer the least amount of vibration and noise in your operation.
- Specific: its use must be well determined: transport refrigeration, BUS AC, supermarket, etc.
- Repairable or reusable: all equipment must be easy to repair or failing that, there must be collection centers that can recycle the equipment. This is indispensable today to be environmental.
- Available: the equipment should be easy to replace. It is useless to buy something that in case of a failure can not be achieved in an adequate time.
- Easy to understand: the technical information of the equipment must be easily accessible, in the language of the people who operate the equipment and be available on the network.
On the environmental issue
Although manufacturers are very aware of the care of the environment, many customers have already been interested in the subject and the frequently asked questions when making the purchase decision include questions such as "is it energy efficient speaking?" or "does it preserve the environment?". However, as long as the legislation on the subject is not clear, there will be no uniform way of thinking and purchase decisions will include other types of variables such as price. In the case of Mexico, European companies that have operations in that country are sticking to the criteria of the central offices, when they know that by law they can continue to use others.
To the above, Roberto Sánchez added that "Mexican companies continue to look for a better initial purchase price without a medium-term vision. I must point out that there are honorable exceptions for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in very specific areas that deserve our admiration and respect for their ethics on the subject; but as long as the government does not legislate and offer support to achieve change, I see it very difficult for companies to change."
Research and innovations
Carlyle's research for the development of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly innovations is currently being conducted in conjunction with Carrier's Global Research and Development Centers in the United States, Europe, China and one will soon open in India. Carlyle as a subsidiary of Carrier Corporation United Technologies uses these centers for research on the use of natural refrigerants such as CO2 and related technologies.
This company manufactures from small compressors for transport units to open 12-cylinder compressors for the refrigeration and industrial air conditioning industry. In addition to the open and semi-hermetic screw compressors of 15 HP type 05T/06T to the Paragon of more than 240 HP, apart from the semi-hermetic models 06D, 06E and those with two lids 06CC.
Its most recent innovations are in European refrigeration facilities and plants where Carlyle compressors have been implemented with the use of CO2 refrigerant with CO2OLtec™ systems.
As far as Emerson is concerned, the company continues to work on the development of technology for Copeland Scroll™ compressors. The goal is to obtain sustainable products and solutions that allow achieving the highest levels of efficiency and reliability with the lowest noise.
Among its innovations is the Copeland Scroll line that R-410A uses as a refrigerant. In addition, compressors for refrigeration with steam injection that allow to obtain 40% more capacity and 30% more efficiency in low temperature applications. At the same time, it launched the Copeland Scroll Digital compressor, which can modulate its capacity from 10% to 100%, which allows a much tighter control of the temperature.
Bitzer had several new features in 2008. In maritime refrigeration, it signed a contract with Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, to implement a double-stage compressor with integrated variable frequency drive; all this in an extra light aluminum body. Its energy efficiency and versatility has allowed it to exceed sales of 20,000 units per year.
In Chillventa 2008 this company launched the Octagon line in which the compressor, the drive and the software are included in a single package. Likewise, the F line was developed where new lubrication and metallurgy technologies are incorporated, allowing the compressors to be rotated at high revolutions; in this way it is achieved with more compact equipment greater capacities.
The balance of the year
2006 and 2007 were good years for compressor manufacturers. 2008 had its ups and downs due to the financial crisis and 2009 looks like a tough year, especially in the first half of the year.
"Indeed, the years 2006 and 2007 were good for the commercialization of compressors; likewise, 2008 was a good year for Carlyle. We expect to see an increase in sales in 2009 as well," said Eduardo Seufferheld Zimmer of Carlyle.
According to Roberto Sánchez of Bitzer, 2008 was a good year until the time of the US real estate crisis and added that "2009 is going to present a very tough challenge for the industry, especially for those who do not have a clear strategy for the replacement market. We expect to see a difficult first half of the year and we are confident that the second half can even exceed the expectations we have today in general. In the case of Bitzer in particular, we are very well positioned globally to find the opportunities and execute them in very aggressive times."
