The UL-approved ECOLINE+ six-cylinder line cuts commercial system costs and lends itself to industrial applications.
German compressor maker Bitzer showcased its ECOLINE+ six-cylinder, 50 HP reciprocating compressor line for transcritical CO2 systems for the first time in the U.S. market at the AHR Expo in Las Vegas last week.
The five-model ECOLINE+ compressor line, which made its global debut last October at Chillventa in Germany, also received approval last week from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to be used in the U.S. They will be manufactured at Bitzer’s Atlanta factory and released over the next year.
The new compressors “gives us more economical choices for our customers for supermarket racks and also allows them to break into big industrial applications like cold storage,” said Joe Sanchez, Application Engineering Manager, Bitzer US, in an interview with R744.com at the AHR Expo.
The reason the 50 HP compressors are more economical, explained Sanchez, is that fewer of them are required for a rack. “Some of the [transcritical] racks in the U.S. have had up to eight or more compressors because of the size limitation. Now they can use fewer compressors and save the cost of components, frame, piping, and installation.”
Now [transcritical racks] can use fewer compressors and save the cost of components, frame, piping, and installation.”– Joe Sanchez, Bitzer US
The ECOLINE+ version of the 50 HP compressor features an integrated compressor module “to make [the compressor] simpler to install and monitor,” said Sanchez. The integrated compressor module is part of Bitzer’s IQ platform, which is designed to simplify wiring, commissioning and troubleshooting, and can vary the unloader to match the capacity a system requires.
The new compressors also come with a line-start permanent-magnet motor that improves their efficiency under “all conditions,” said Sanchez. This technology has been undergoing testing at Bitzer and in selected systems in the field for more than five years. The motors can be operated directly and with frequency inverters.
Bitzer has offered compressors for transcritical systems since 2004. It markets two- four- and six-cylinder transcritical compressors under ECONOLINE.
