Henningsen to install CO₂ system in existing Pa. plant

Henningsen Cold Storage, which installed its first transcritical CO₂ system in June at a new 110,000-sq-ft warehouse in Grandview, Wash., plans to install its second at an existing facility in Scranton, Pa., by September 1.

The second system, supplied by Hillphoenix for a 30,000-sq-ft freezer, will replace a R404A system, and deliver a capacity of about 75 TR at a temperature of -10°F, said Pete Lepschat, engineering services manager for Henningsen, based in Hillsboro, Ore. 

The new CO₂ systems mark a move by Henningsen from low-charge ammonia to “no-charge” ammonia, noted Lepschat at the ATMOsphere America 2018 conference in June.

In Grandview, the rooftop transcritical CO₂ system was supplied by Carnot Refrigeration and installed by PermaCold Engineering. While transcritical systems have been installed in many U.S. supermarkets, this is one of the first to be used by a cold-storage facility in the U.S.

“It’s a big jump for us and our industry,” said Lepschat.

Apart from the learning curve for an ammonia operator, the biggest challenge in using transcritical for Henningsen was just that it was new. “We’ve never done it before,” said Lepschat. “But we hadn’t done a lot of things before we did them the first time.”

For developing low-charge ammonia central systems and installing the CO₂ systems, Henningsen received the 2018 Accelerate America Award for Best in Sector/Industrial at ATMOsphere America 2018.