Bitzer Brazil opens first CO₂ training centre of the Americas

Bitzer Brazil has inaugurated the first CO₂ Technology & Training Centre for North and South America. Installed in Bitzer’s plant in Sao Paulo, the centre will provide training covering safety, design, installation, commissioning, servicing and maintenance. Moreover, it will allow for hands-on energy efficiency comparisons between different systems.

Bitzer Brazil’s experienced engineers have developed a five-day training course concerning the use of CO₂ as a refrigerant in commercial and industrial systems. Practical and theoretical classes will be provided at what is the first CO₂ training centre in both North and South America based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Bitzer Australia has also contributed to the development of the CO₂ course by providing valuable learning material, refrigeration equipment and technical information.

The resulting course, provided in Portuguese, Spanish and English, and intended for students, technicians, engineers, designers and installers, includes five modules, namely:

• CO₂ Fundamentals
   
• Systems Safety with CO₂ Applications
   
• CO₂ Refrigeration Systems
   
• CO₂ Refrigeration Components
   
• Commissioning, Servicing and Maintenance Procedures

Moreover, equipment installed at the training centre will allow energy efficiency comparisons to be carried out between a CO₂ subcritical system (CO₂/R404A) and direct expansion conventional systems using R404A and R22.

Equipment installed at the CO₂ Training & Technology Center

The refrigeration racks: The three refrigeration racks with similar cooling capacities installed at the training centre use CO₂ in the subcritical condition (CO₂/R404A), R404A only and R22. All installations feature the most modern semi-hermetic compressors of Bitzer’s Octagon series in parallel application, used on medium and low evaporation temperature.

The cold rooms: Two out of the three cold rooms are operating at medium temperature (cooling and walk-in cooler) and one at low temperature. In each cold room the evaporators of the three respective racks (CO₂, R404A and R22) are installed. In addition, two low temperature islands, linked only to the CO₂ rack, are installed. In order to conduct energy efficiency comparisons, the equipment operates at just one rack at a time, which means that while one rack is operating the other two remain turned off.

The electronic controllers: All electronic controllers were donated by Italian manufacturer Carel. All conditions for the operation of the refrigeration equipment are controlled and monitored by the pCO electronic controllers that are fitted in each rack. Moreover, Carel’s PlantVisorPRO supervision system, which comes with a high level of precision and reliability, controls the entire refrigeration plant.

Transcritcal CO₂ and CO₂/R717 cascade racks to be installed at the centre

After the centre’s first design stage was completed end of 2008, two more refrigeration racks will be installed at a second phase, one using CO₂ in the transcritical condition and the other using CO₂ and ammonia (R717) in the subcritical condition. In addition, a water chiller with the natural hydrocarbon refrigerant propylene (R1270) will be used as the center’s air conditioner, also ensuring a constant temperature of the condensing water used in the racks with water-cooled condensers. Bitzer Brazil expects the installation of the additional equipment to commence at the end of 2009.

Contact Information

If you would like to contact BITZER for any enquiries, you may send a request to Oliver Javerschek directly.