Industrial refrigeration market
 |
| Two-compressor unit on a standalone frame. |
General information
“Industrial refrigeration” in Russia most often means systems for refrigeration supply and maintaining temperature at the level required for processing, freezing, storing, and transportation of food products.
This also includes process air conditioning in production workshops and refrigeration equipment for HVAC tests and processes in chemical, metallurgical, and some other branches of industry.
However, the largest share of this market is, of course, taken by the food industry and commerce.
Basing on this, it is easy to determine the group of refrigeration systems potential consumers.These are: stores, restaurants, wholesale storages and warehouses, meat processing plants, poultry farms, dairy plants, fish farms, cold storage and other similar facilities.
Medical and scientific organizations as well as some sport facilities also need refrigeration systems; however, the share of such facilities is small.Of course, the industrial refrigeration market is not homogeneous.Some experts tend to classify equipment on the basis of power demand: from 0.5 to 50 kW – commercial, 50-250 kW – heavy-duty commercial and semi-industrial, over 250 kW – industrial equipment. There also exist another classification: basing on the working medium. Freon-based equipment is related to commercial group, while installations using ammonia and CO2 are related to industrial group.
Industrial refrigeration systems are the field for large market players having wide experience and impressive list of completed projects while commercial and semi-industrial equipment can also be handled by companies which have never worked at this market before but have some experience in design and installation of other engineering systems.
Commercial refrigeration equipment
 |
| Four-compressor unit by Bitzer |
There are distinguished systems with monoblock (in-built) and remote-mount refrigeration packages. Usually, the first ones are small- and medium power installations. The require minimum expense for installation and commissioning; however, they also feature a number of disadvantages due to their design, for example, they have certain limits in adjustment and operation conditions.
However, the larger share of commercial refrigeration equipment includes remote-mount refrigeration package systems.
Besides, equipment is also subdivided into groups. The first group includes equipment for sales areas: show cases, shelves, cabinets and chest freezers. The second group includes auxiliary equipment for processes: ice generators, direct-flow and capacitive liquid chillers. The third group includes monoblock units, refrigeration packages and central refrigeration supply stations. The fourth group includes heat-exchanger based equipment: air coolers, condensers, and dry coolers. Besides, each of these groups includes many sub-groups, however, the detailed classification is beyond the scope of this article.
Example of a conventional supermarket refrigeration system
For example, a conventional supermarket refrigeration supply system may be considered. Centralized refrigeration supply system is used in such systems with remote-mount multiple-compressor packages (central cooling machines). At present, most popular refrigerants in commercial refrigeration are R404A and R22. At that, a tendency of transition from R22 to R404a has started lately due to the global tendency of hydrochlorofluorocarbons phase out.
Usually, two such units are used in a supermarket. One supplies cold to medium-temperature equipment (shopboards, bottle-shelves, and storage cabinets), while the second unit supplies cold to low-temperature equipment. Each unit consists of several (usually from three to five) sealed or semi-sealed compressors installed on a common frame and equipped with common suction and discharge headers.
Shut-off valves are installed on the suction line making it possible to disconnect the unit from the system for maintenance purposes. There also is installed a primary purification filter which prevents dirt from getting inside the compressor. It is practically impossible to avoid dirt accumulation in a large and branched system. Low-temperature units are equipped with fluid cooling units in which the liquid refrigerant is evaporated which may also cause compressor failure. Discharge line is equipped with shut-off and check valves, and condensing pressure valve. The condenser is usually installed outdoors.
The liquid refrigerant enters receiver which can be installed on the common frame with the unit or on a separate site. The receiver is equipped with shut-off and safety valves and sight glasses for controlling the refrigerant level. The safety equipment set must include high and low pressure switches and temperature switches.
They can be either common for all compressors, or each compressor can be equipped with an individual set; the safety devices may have adjustable or fixed actuation setting.
Suction and discharge pressure can visually be controlled by means of pressure gauges installed on the relevant mains.
When operating a branched refrigeration supply system, a sufficient oil level must be maintained in each compressor in order to ensure return of this oil. For that, on the discharge line an oil separator is installed in which the oil drawn out from the compressor by the refrigerant is separated from the refrigerant and then forwarded to oil tank (oil collector). Then oil from the oil collector is discharged through primary purification filters to oil level regulators which can be either mechanical or electronic. The latter ensure more accurate control but are also more expensive.
Unit capacity is measured by turning compressor on or off. Systems with smooth capacity adjustment on the basis of frequency inverter (inverter type) which are popular in Europe are used rarely in Russia due to their high price. For smooth regulation of fan rotation speed frequency convertors and phase cutters are used. More expensive inverters are usually used on large systems: at hypermarkets or large warehouses.
Now, after units, refrigeration users can be considered. Their configuration differs from one manufacturer to another. For example, one may purchase a “barebone” showcase, on which all required components are installed during assembling stage, or a completely assembled item.
The basic set of equipment for cameras includes air coolers, shut-off ball valves on the inlet and outlet, dryer filters, solenoid valves, thermovalves. Low-temperature cameras also require a flexible THE for heating melted water in the water cooler tray.
Due to the specificity of refrigeration use in stores, medium-temperature unit will usually have higher cooling capacity and power consumption than a low-temperature unit. At small stores, so-called satellite units are used integrating on a common frame medium- and low-temperature compressors. Compressors in those systems have separate suction collectors and a common discharge collector.
Remote control systems are mostly used in large supermarkets and hypermarkets. Most manufacturers use proprietary communication protocols for their electronics. However, lately Modbus open protocol is gaining popularity.
At present, market demand for energy-efficient technologies is presently low. Electronic expansion valves are still exotic in Russia and are not used as a standard solution. Such solutions are mainly used by foreign retail chains like Carrefour, Grossmart, or Kalinka-Stockmann, who pay attention to the decrease of operation costs. Probably the most popular solution increasing system efficiency are systems recovering condensation heat and using it for process water heating (CW No 52).
Main brands of equipment
Large Russian manufacturers of multi-compressor and compressor-condenser units are: ASV Holod, Cryotec, Nord, Olex Holding, Ostrov, Promholod, Refsyst, Thermocool, Feam. Also, equipment by Arneg, Zanotti, Linde, Teko is widely represented at the Russian market.
 |
| Operation of a cooling unit is impossible without well-tuned automation devices |
Commercial refrigeration equipment made in our country occupies mainly lower and medium price segments. That is production of already mentioned Ariada as well as production of Brandford, Arneg Rus, Premier, Mariholodmash. Belorussian Golfstream can also be included here.
Largest manufacturers of automation devices and piping accessories for refrigeration supply systems are Alco Controls (Emerson Climate Technologies), Asper, Danfoss, and Castel. Most well-known at the Russian market brands of sealed compressors are: Cubigel, Danfoss, Tecumseh. Semi-hermetic compressors are represented by Bitzer, Bock, Copeland, Dorin, and Frascold brands.
Heat exchanger equipment (evaporators, condensers) is supplied by Alfa-Laval, ECO, Friga-Bohn, GEA Kueba, GEA Goedhard, GEA Searle, Guentner, Lu-Ve, and Thermofin. Oil line components are manufactured by Alco Controls, AC&R, Castel, Schultze.
Other market players
A recognized leader in supplying kits for refrigeration supply systems is Ostrov company. It has been operating at this market for 15 years by now, offering ammonia-based units, chillers, heat exchangers, and automation devices for refrigeration units.
Since 1998, almost the same range of products and services has been offered by Thermocool company which has its own assembly line. Specialists of the company have wide experience in designing and installing semi-industrial and industrial refrigeration equipment. In addition to standard product lines, Thermocool offers packaged equipment tailored for the user’s specific tasks.
Aircool company also specializes in production, design and supply of refrigeration units, ice generators, chillers, and cold accumulators; however, unlike the two companies mentioned earlier, this company operates in Saint Petersburg, not in Moscow.
In the field of refrigeration supply stores Moscow companies like Novaya Liniya, Nord, Euroholod, Olex Holding, Promholod, Russkiy Project, Saint Petersburg-based Lend company, Torgovy Disain, Expoholod, and Russian offices of Lithuanian company, Baltic-Master are among first.
Largest distributors of refrigeration equipment and accessories are: Arktika, Quadrotek, Morena, Refcom, Scan Ref, CPS-Holod, Thermocool, Farmina, Hladotehnika, and Aircool.
Potential problems at the market
In spite of the fact that industrial refrigeration market is not so dependent on the construction as in the case of HVAC market, the fall of the industrial refrigeration market in 2009 was still very serious. According to different estimates, the decrease was from 30% to 70%. So, if the construction market is developing – then the industrial refrigeration market will have a chance; if not, then the industrial refrigeration market will become too small even for existing players. However, not everybody can agree with this point of view.
Nevertheless, all experts are cautious in their forecasts for 2010. Even most optimistic forecasts do not imply a tiniest possibility of the industry complete recovery. This is the main difficulty which refrigeration companies will unavoidably face.
Another problem of this market is lack of professionals. Specialized departments exist in many universities (MSTU, MPEI, MSUAB, MSUEE, and SPSULTandFT), however, students have to train themselves using old equipment and outdated training aids. As a result, young specialists will need further training or even re-training. And while in Moscow and Saint Petersburg one can find some qualified workers, company directors in regions of Russia often have to employ any young person having technical education. Meanwhile, even sales of refrigeration equipment should only be performed by those having adequate knowledge in this field.
HVAC market players who decided to enter refrigeration market will, of course, be in a better position than “outsiders”; however, those companies will still have to bear certain costs for training specialists. Any powerful refrigeration system with high pressure vessel is, by default, subject to supervision; and Rostekhnadzor is not to be trifled with. Moreover, the rules for installation and safe operation of pressure vessels is not the only standard to be taken in consideration by designers of refrigeration systems.
And some more about the market
It’s rather difficult to estimate the volume of industrial and commercial refrigeration market volume.
There are several reasons to this.
First of all, about a half of the industrial and commercial refrigeration market consists of “grey” equipment, i.e. equipment imported bypassing official channels or in violation of current rules. Second is that “small” objects are usually not interesting for large companies, so small companies operate in this segment, and volumes of those small companies are practically impossible to determine. Third is that companies operating at this market are not interested in monitoring the market as a whole. They are much more interested in evaluating the sizes of a potential market for a particular type of equipment or for a particular region. Nevertheless, according to different experts’ estimates, the volume of industrial refrigeration market did not exceed 600 million US dollars even in the most successful 2007. And after comparing this number with the volume of HVAC equipment during in most successful years (and we speak here about more than one billion dollars) it becomes clear, that there are no mountains of gold in this sector, nor can they be expected. Industrial and commercial refrigeration is not the simplest and most profitable business; however, for many it is a rather attractive field.
The article was prepared by Climate World magazine editorial office