On June 23 and 24, 2016 the eurammon symposium took place in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Under the theme ‘Path into a Green Future’, ten international lecturers showcased current trends and regulations in the refrigeration technology of the food and retail industry and presented future-oriented application examples.

With nearly 70 participants from 13 countries, the eurammon lecture event was fully booked again this year. Mark Bulmer, board member of Eurammon, said: “With our focus on the food and retail industry, we caught the spirit of the times. The use of natural refrigerants is gaining importance in this industry in particular – especially considering international regulations such as the F-Gas regulation. But also the increasing awareness for sustainability among operators and consumers makes natural refrigerants more popular than ever before.”

Increased trend towards applications with CO₂

Eurammon members Ákos Murin from QPlan, and Anders Juul of Danfoss, introduced innovations in the field of technologies and planning standards for CO₂-based refrigeration systems. Both emphasised that in recent years the popularity of CO₂ has risen significantly. This growth was positively influenced, in particular by the increase in the knowledge about handling this refrigerant. The development of innovative components such as compressors used in parallel that facilitate an increase of the overall energy efficiency of systems with CO₂ further supports this trend.

Refrigeration systems with ammonia stay in the spotlight

“Operators using ammonia once tend to stick with it”, explains eurammon member Stefan Jensen of Scantec Refrigeration in Australia. In the course of his presentation, he demonstrated that ammonia is still one of the most popular refrigeration solutions in the food and retail industry. The wide spectrum on available cooling capacity (from -50°C to +15°C) makes this refrigerant particularly suited for the high cooling demands of the food and retail industry. Stefan Jensen illustrated with three different examples that switching from HFC systems to modern ammonia-based refrigeration system is also worthwhile from an economical point of view. The higher initial investment is usually amortised after less than five years. Low operating costs are another strong argument for ammonia-based refrigeration systems.

With the installation of a refrigerated warehouse in the hot desert city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Miguel Garrido, sales director Western Europe of eurammon member Güntner, demonstrated not only the extreme capability of ammonia but underscored that an intelligent system design with easy accessibility minimises maintenance costs and facilitates the implementation of the highest security standards.

The future of natural refrigerants in the food and retail industry

During a workshop, participants of the symposium discussed the future use of natural refrigerants in the food and retail industry. The experts assessed today’s barriers in the industry and the potentials of individual applications. Ongoing developments in technology, such as low charge ammonia systems, could help drive the wider use of natural refrigerants. The participants of the symposium clearly identified the key levers for a green future: “Planners and also operators need to increase their knowledge about the manifold application possibilities as well as their know-how regarding safe handling of natural refrigerants,” says Mark Bulmer, exemplifying the results from the discussion rounds. “Therefore, our goal at eurammon is and will be to further that knowledge in the various industries”.

The lectures can be downloaded from the eurammon website at www.eurammon.com.