Chillventa Exclusive: Compact to launch an ejector by 2017

The German manufacturer assembles custom-built CO₂, ammonia and propane solutions according to market demand. “The examples at [Chillventa] are made for our customers and they will go to them after the show,” said Stephan Leideck, head of technical training and a project engineer at compact Kältetechnik.

It is this philosophy that led compact Kältetechnik to develop its own ejector. “Due to the market situation we decided to manufacture our own ejector,” Leideck said.

The company is currently testing a prototype at its test site. It plans to bring to market by 2017 a gas and liquid ejector system with a built-in controller. The controller – developed together with the German controls manufacturer Eckelmann – will be self-sufficient and independent from other controllers used by the customer.

CO₂ brine cooler ‘could become standard’ after 2020

Leideck showed R744.com compact’s CO₂ brine cooler at Chillventa. “This is not common – the market in Germany hasn't been using CO₂ brine coolers very often, but it will be after 2020,” he said. The cooler is used to refrigerate cold rooms or brines to temperatures of  around 0 to -10°C.

Compact’s CO₂ booster system for transcritical operating conditions was also on show. “[Transcritical] is nothing new. The only complicated [part] is the pressure stages on it, and we are extremely flexible with redesigning that as well.” 

Compact wants to offer tailor-made solutions that their various customers can understand. “We have a simple booster. The efficiency can be increased with parallel compression, heat recovery solutions and – in the future – with ejector technology, but we don’t want to confuse anyone at Chillventa. We have a lot of customers who want to see a simple machine [for CO₂], and we think we offer one at the exhibition,” Leideck explained.

‘We see training as key’

Training plays a key role in compact’s offer to customers.

“We do training mostly for our customers, but also for planners and responsible people from the supermarket sector [mostly for CO₂] also do attend. We show them the correct way of doing things, so they know how to operate the system by themselves,” he said.