How sweet the sound! For businesses that rely on refrigeration for their very existence, like retail food, food processing, cold storage warehouses, biopharmaceutical, and such, having that process under control is the very measure of the health of their business lifeline. There could be no sweeter or more comfortable words to hear than “everything’s under control with your refrigeration process.”
Many of these types of businesses are increasingly turning to CO2, a natural refrigerant solution, for their refrigeration needs, driven in large part by their desire to “future-proof” their operations against the specter of costly, regulatory-mandated refrigerant change-outs. Hillphoenix has played a key role in this rise in popularity with its industry-leading development of CO2 refrigeration technology and products. Among these products, the Hillphoenix Advansor CO2 transcritical booster system is playing a major role in advancing the usage of CO2 applications.
Among the many benefits this Hillphoenix product has to offer, ranging from better performance to improved energy efficiency, customers are showing a lot of love for the transcritical rack controller designed specifically for CO2 systems. With this controller, racks operate independent of a host processor. If there is a problem with an individual module, you do not lose the rest of the rack. But perhaps the most profound attraction of the controller technology package is its ability to perform complete operational system control and performance monitoring, allowing for real-time process control. Users and refrigeration contractors alike have been singing its praises.
One such installation by Zone Mechanical (a highly regarded and experienced refrigeration contractor in the Midwest) of a Hillphoenix Advansor CO2 transcritical booster system at House of Spices (India) Inc., where they manufacture, market and distribute spices, grains, flours, ghee, pastes, condiments, and other flavorful products to the entire South Asian food industry across North America. Brent Beishuizen, service manager for Zone Mechanical, is quick to point out some of the more key aspects of control technology:
- Pulling up superheats of each coil
- Display of coil temperatures and suction pressures and temperatures
- Display of liquid pressures, allowing the technician to know whether a load was iced up or just going through defrost.
Abraham Philip, Midwest regional manager for House of Spices, also spoke highly of the value the technology brought House of Spices. “We really like that a lot! If there are any system alerts or alarms of any nature, we are immediately notified with an auto email from the control system. We can then log into the system remotely from wherever we are, check the specifics of the alert, and determine the required response and associated urgency.” He summarized his feelings by saying, “It sure helps us to sleep well at night by knowing that.”