Mexico. The Kigali Amendment in Mexico has been presenting a series of Success Stories in commercial refrigeration on alternatives to HFCs. The one you will see below is a demonstration project to replace HFCs with hydrocarbons as a refrigerant in the manufacture of self-contained commercial refrigeration equipment in Mexico.
Background: With about 6.6% of exports of commercial self-contained refrigeration equipment, Mexico ranks fourth in global importance. This class of equipment includes beverage coolers, display cases and counters. In Mexico, most of this equipment continues to use HFC-134a and, to a lesser extent, R-404A. In recent years, beverage coolers with CO2 (R-744) refrigerant have begun to be incorporated and recently the introduction to the market of equipment with hydrocarbons has begun: propane (R-290) and isobutane (R-600a), which are projected as optimal alternatives, due to the low refrigerant loads that this class of refrigeration systems require and because they have Global Warming Potentials (GWP) close to zero.
Imbera
Imbera is a global manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment. It has 5 production plants in Mexico (photo), Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and South Africa, and exports to around 60 countries. With 75 years of experience, he is a pioneer in the design, development and manufacture of various self-contained commercial refrigeration equipment.
Imbera's plant in Mexico is located in San Juan del Río, Queretaro, and has 2,500 workers. It has been operating since 1941, and has 8 final assembly process lines, using various refrigerant gases, mainly HFC-134a, R-404A and R-744. It is currently implementing a conversion project to use R-290. In addition, Imbera has been using low-GWP cyclopentane blowing agent for the production of insulating foams in refrigerators for several years.
Conversion to refrigerant R-290
The conversion in Imbera will replace in the next two years its consumption of HFC gases by R-290 and, to a lesser extent, R-600a, equivalent to stop consuming about 124 thousand tCO2e. The demonstration project will be financed with resources from the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, with the technical assistance of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in coordination with the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).
Plant changes
• Change of gas chargers and implicit peripheral equipment
• Gas loader leak detection system and gas injection system by means of barcode reader for precise dosing
• Explosion-proof electrical installation in safety zone
• Centralized propane gas measurement system with 15% threshold for safety system activation, equipment disconnection and increase of the extraction system
Developments in energy efficiency
• State-of-the-art LOW glass doors
• 50% energy-saving DIRECT current electronic motors developed by Imbera and Wellington
• Use of LED lamps on doors
• Variable speed compressors
• Intelligent function control
Integration of operations and circular economy model
As part of its vision of sustainability, Imbera seeks to offer solutions throughout the useful life of the systems it manufactures, starting from environmentally responsible production and until the recycling or final disposal of the equipment it maintains, while continuously seeking to optimize energy savings, among other comfort improvements, such as lower noise and intelligent control. All this is part of the actions aimed at consolidating within a circular economy scheme, which places them as leaders in the sector worldwide.
