R744 at London's Hotelympia exhibition

Among the 1,000+ 'Hotelympia' exhibitors, covering all areas of hospitality including food and drink and catering equipment, CCS Refrigeration and Iglu Cold Systems were present to echo the potential of CO₂ refrigerant in the UK hospitality sector.

Hotelympia has opened its doors to an audience of over 40,000 at ExCeL, London, boasting an impressive exhibitor list of more than 1,000 companies. Represented are all areas of hospitality from food & drink, catering equipment, tabletop, decor and design, bathroom & hotel spa, premises & facilities and technology.

Among the exhibitors, two companies demonstrated their eagerness to push for CO₂ technology in the hospitality industry, namely CCS Refrigeration Ltd and Iglu Cold Systems.

CCS Refrigeration committed to natural refrigerants

In the foodservice industry, CCS Refrigeration Ltd has been established as a major player in the design and installation of coldroom suites throughout the UK. With regards to CO₂ technology, the company will be gradually rolling out an increasing number of CO₂ installations with the aim of having a full roll out of CO₂ in 2013. After overcoming initial difficulties regarding the availability of CO₂ packs, the company has already several sites in the pipeline that will be running on CO₂ in the UK, along with projects in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

A signatory of THENATURALVOICE, - an open statement supported to date by 78 industry partners around the world that points to the potential of natural refrigerants - CCS Refrigeration is committed to the use of natural refrigerants on all new projects. Hence, from 2010, all new large system developments by the company will incorporate natural refrigerants CO₂, ammonia and hydrocarbons as part of their design.

“We will be pushing like mad to get our industry change their ways: from the blowing agent in our coldroom insulated panels to the refrigerant we are using, we are pushing natural refrigerants 100%”, said David Blinkhorn, Managing Director of CCS Refrigeration.

Iglu Cold Systems is ‘CO₂ ready!’

‘CO₂ ready!’ was the motto at the stand of Italian based refrigeration equipment manufacturer Iglu Cold Systems, which officially launched its UK based operation at Hotelympia. The company aspires to lead the way in CO₂ technology within the UK hospitality sector initially through the manufacturing of CO₂ cabinets, blast chillers (200kg) and wine walls for CO₂ in remote applications and later move on as well to CO₂ integral applications.