Since December 2017 there has been another Globus department store near Moscow. Fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and bakery products jostle for a position on a total area of 28,000 square metres. The opening was preceded by an organisational masterpiece. In just three months, Kriofrost Engineering had to plan and install the complete refrigeration system, from the refrigerant lines through to a booster system for medium and low-temperature refrigeration.
30 compressors in seven refrigeration systems, one satellite and one booster system, an area of 28,000 square meters to be cooled – and only three months to do it in. The order that BITZER’s longstanding customer Kriofrost Engineering received was a tough one. During this time, the engineers were to design and install the refrigeration system in a Globus department store in Kotelniki, from laying the refrigerant lines in the department store’s underground duct system to designing the machine rooms.
Alexander Kotlyar, General Director of Kriofrost said, “The project at Globus was a very interesting task for us. On the one hand, because of the time, of course, and on the other hand because of the technical side.” After all, some challenges in the design of the refrigeration system had to be mastered. This started with not colliding with other supply lines when installing the pipeline for the refrigerant. And that was not the end of it. For the restaurant areas, for example, the Kriofrost Engineering experts set up a central cooling system for several temperature conditions. This was connected to flash-freezers, as well as medium-temperature refrigerated shelves and air-conditioning systems.
The booster system makes it possible.
This was made possible by a booster refrigeration system developed by Techno-frost, a strategic partner of Kriofrost Engineering, together with BITZER. In this booster system, the specialists from the three companies installed six refrigeration compressors arranged in two levels, which are located one above the other on a common frame. On the lower level, four BITZER reciprocating compressors compress from intermediate pressure range into the high-pressure side. The two compressors mounted on the upper level compress the refrigerant from the low-pressure side into the intermediate pressure range. Both levels have separate discharge gas lines. The special feature is that four compressors for medium and two compressors for low temperature refrigeration work with the refrigerant R404A and are integrated into a common refrigerant circuit. “Compared to conventional solutions with separate cooling stations for different temperature conditions, this refrigeration system saves our customer considerable costs, as well as both investment and operating costs,” continued Alexander
Kotlyar. The engineers planned the satellite system in a similar way. The difference here, however, is that this system has a common discharge gas line for both levels. However, each level with two reciprocating compressors has its own suction gas line and two different evaporation temperatures. The lower level has an evaporation temperature of (–)10C, the upper one of (–)28C. All four compressors compress the refrigerant to the high-pressure range. The experts from Kriofrost installed seven central refrigeration systems with a total of 30 BITZER reciprocating compressors from the ECOLINE series in the department store’s three machine rooms. BITZER VARISTEP provides smooth, mechanical capacity control on five of the refrigeration systems – with the exception of the booster and the satellite system. To condense the refrigerant, Kriofrost installed air condensers made by Güntner on the roof of the department store.
“The general cooling capacity is approximately one MW for medium temperature and air conditioning systems, and is approximately 300 kW for low-temperature systems,” continued Alexander Kotlyar. One special aspect of the project is the energy saving achieved by the engineers. Thanks to the use of a liquid after-chiller in the low-temperature sets, the use of electronic expansion valves for the individual cooling units and the use of a booster system, as well as variable condensing temperature, Kriofrost’s solution, was a great success. “Thanks to these energy-efficient components and the good cooperation with our partner BITZER, we were able to save energy and thus reduce investment in the supply of refrigeration for users of commercial facilities, ancillary spaces, restaurants, food courts, freezers and refrigeration chambers,” said Alexander Kotlyar. And Kriofrost is already planning for the future. Since the large chains are now interested in refrigeration systems using the natural refrigerant CO2, BITZER customers will soon be active here too.
Long-standing collaboration with Globus
The cooperation between Globus and Kriofrost Engineering started with services for existing refrigeration systems. In the course of the sales-type Globus 3.0, which the company based in Saarland, Germany has introduced, the specialists have now been able to carry out several complete projects. Globus has been active on the Russian market for several years and has invested five billion roubles in Kotelniki, which corresponds to almost 70 million euros. A department store with a total area of 28,000 m² was built for this. 12,800 m² of this is a sales area with an assortment of approx. 45,000 articles and the area of the produce departments (salad, meat, fish, patisserie) is over 5,000 m². There is a food court and restaurant area with 700 seats on the premises, and there is parking for 1,500 vehicles. Globus hopes that the new department store will attract around eight million visitors per year.