23-25 January 2012, Chicago, USA

International Exposition Company, the organisers of AHR Expo, have announced that the 2012 edition, will be held from January 23 to January 25 at McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, Illinois.

The world’s largest HVACR exposition, the organisers said, is expected to attract thousands of attendees from all facets of the industry, including contractors, engineers, dealers, distributors, wholesalers, OEMs, architects, builders, industrial plant operators, facility owners and managers, agents and representatives.

According to the organisers, the event will host over 100 seminars and educational sessions and feature:

• Building automation and control showcase
• AHR Expo innovation awards presentation
• Software centre
• New product technology theatre presentations

The event is co-sponsored by ASHRAE and AHRI.

Contact:
Tel: +1 203 221 9232
E-mail: info@ahrexpo.com
Web: www.ahrexpo.com

19-22 September, Abu Dhabi, UAE

It is the turn of the Emirates Falcon Chapter to host the CRC Conference, this year. The event will feature an international summit on September 19 and 20 and interactive workshops on September 21 and 22.

For complete details, please visit crc.ashraeuae.org

Contact: Ahmed Alaa
President Elect
ASHRAE Falcon Chapter
Mobile: +971 50 641 89 99
Website: www.ashrae.ae

26-29 June, Toronto, Canada

To be conducted at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, in Toronto, and hosted by Enwave Energy, the event is entitled, “Essential Infrastructure for Energy Efficient Communities”. According to IDEA, the event will showcase highly efficient clean district energy technologies deployed on an urban scale. Participants will hear from industry and government on effective policies that stimulate investment in community-scale energy infrastructure, necessary for a truly sustainable local economy.

Host Enwave Energy is the owner of the innovative lake water district cooling system and one of North America’s largest district heating systems.

Contact: Tanya Kozel, IDEA (International District Energy Association)
Telephone: +1 410 518 6676
E-mail: tanya.idea@districtenergy.org
Website: www.districtenergy.org

Pollutants in outdoor and indoor air can be irritants, both major and minor. Yet, we are less proactive when it comes to protecting our respiratory systems by choosing the quality of air we breathe. Massive investments go into conducting extensive research and development to provide the latest and the best air filters. But do we give a serious thought to acquire them?

Let us take, for example, the indoor air quality of hospitals. Clean air is a need rather than a luxury when we are hospitalised. Hospitals are considered the most important internal facilities, because numerous and different kinds of end-uses occupy indoor spaces that serve various functions.

The most demanding independent indoor zones are operating theatres. They consist of operating or surgical theatres as well as their interconnecting hallways and working areas. Being in a healthcare facility, patients and visitors have a right to expect hospital indoor air to be of the highest quality, and certainly to be better and safer than air in other types of buildings.

Atmospheric air plays an influential role in introducing additional pollutants, which can come from parking areas, vehicle emissions, ambient traffic and construction activities. Therefore, a hospital could be subject to unacceptable air qualities in certain areas due to intake of toxic compounds from these sources, apart from odours from construction sites around or at the hospital, emissions from light and heavy duty vehicles, as well as harmful compounds present in construction materials. All these contaminants challenge the air filters installed in the hospital’s HVAC system, and their excessive concentrations alter the dynamic performance of the filters.

HOSPITAL INDOOR AIR QUALITY

Not only patients and visitors demand and deserve clean air but also medical personnel who work in these environments on a daily basis. They, too, deserve to breathe clean air, as their well-being and safety are affected by hospital indoor air, as they spend long hours looking after our health and recovery process.

HVAC installations control indoor air quality by virtue of extensive use of air filters. Fresh, pre, fine and absolute filters are utilised to provide the required indoor air quality.

However, owing to the great influx of people and hospital bed traffic into the indoor space, like the waiting rooms, emergency rooms and visitors’ area, contamination possibilities are greatly multiplied, as microorganisms and other contaminants are transmitted indoors. Hospitals, therefore, need to seriously consider upgrading filtration requirements even for areas that are regarded as non-critical spaces of the facility, in order to assure that they have the cleanest indoor air possible. Furthermore, filtration requirements for one-day surgery rooms should not be underestimated and their need for filtration upgrade is absolutely essential.

ABSOLUTE FILTER AND MICROBIAL GROWTH

Provided they are appropriately installed, ‘Absolute’ filters can be very effective in encountering microbial growth in HVAC systems. Faulty installation, on the other hand, may contaminate indoor air, causing health hazards. Maintenance personnel, therefore, should have convenient and safe access to the air filter section in an air handling unit. In fact, filter installation should be done by clipping the header filter frame to the installation frame. The installer should stand in front of the dirty/dusty side and not at the back of the clean side of the filter, as shown in Figure 1.

This installation practice prevents the cooling/heating coil from damage, and becomes increasingly important in applications such as pharmaceuticals and hospitals, where absolute filters are used. Air handling unit manufacturers can greatly help in exercising this safe installation measure at the design stage of their units by providing clip-type installation as opposed to the U-channel frame, which is prone to leakage.

Furthermore, the attention of the maintenance crew should also be drawn to the fact that standing behind the clean side introduces unnecessary contamination into the air handling unit from their shoes, uniforms and tools. This would later on require tedious maintenance, cleaning, and most likely, disinfection.

OPTIONS FOR RESIDENTIAL FILTRATION SYSTEMS

If pre-filters are doing their ‘textbook’ filtration jobs well, why then do air diffusers eventually accumulate massive amounts of dust, as shown in Figure 2?

On a tangential, but relevant note, on several occasions, after my seminars, many people have approached me to enquire about upgrading their existing residential filtration systems. As much as I enjoy spreading awareness of improved indoor air quality, I tell them that unfortunately, a total external static pressure of residential system is not sufficient to install high-efficiency filters. For example, if we consider a residential system (fan coil unit) of around 100 Pa, the total external pressure drop would barely allow about 15 to 20 Pa for the air filter usage. As a rule of thumb, the higher the filtration class, the higher the pressure drop and energy consumption leading to shorter lifetime of the HVAC equipment.

Other practices that could provide higher efficiency of indoor air are the use of self-contained units to clean the air by virtue of several compact filter elements, combining a HEPA and activated carbon filters. While it is difficult to quantify the actual performance of such units, usually filtration is done at the source. In other words, contaminants are required to be removed prior to further introducing the air to the HVAC equipment. Alternatively, modification may be done to the HVAC system to accommodate the pressure drop of the filter used in the upgrade. However, this option has its own limitations and requires ultra-low pressure drop filters.

Clearly, the best option to provide higher indoor air quality is for the filtration and HVAC designers to join hands to combine their efforts and ideas in providing the design that would accommodate in the pre-design stage itself, the filter class needed by the required application. Such a collaboration and cooperation would avoid any retrofitting exercise or individual air cleaning units to be placed randomly in the occupied space.

DESIGN ALTERNATIVES

The issue of design alternatives deserves careful thought. Building owners demand the best components for their air handling units, such as motor and coil. But do they equally pay attention to appropriate selection of the sole line of defence, namely, air filters? Such a line of defence will protect the components of air handling units on which they have spent so much of time and money, and have carefully selected and purchased.

Earlier inclusion of the filtration requirements in HVAC design stage will prove invaluable in terms of providing higher indoor air quality and avoiding the possibility of design modifications after commissioning. Furthermore, the HVAC equipment could provide the capacity to accommodate additional stages of filtration to be used when required. This would be a great option in case of sand storms and in cases of spread of epidemics.

An immediate objection to this option could be the price of higher efficiency filter. In fact, it is a common belief that the cost of an air filter adds significantly to the expenditure, thus burdening the building owner. However, if the overall cost of an HVAC system is considered and compared, the HVAC equipment and its energy consumption constitute the main part of the entire annual bill of the building. Consequently, acquiring lower class (lower cost) filter may have negligible impact in terms of cost savings. In fact, a cheaper filter puts to risk the indoor air quality, has higher pressure drop and shorter life time. By opting for an inferior quality filter, the owners could actually face a situation where their HVAC system becomes the main contamination transmitter across the building. What is even more alarming is that after a certain point, the source of the contamination could be rendered untraceable.

Another associated cost which is often underestimated is the frequent changing and disposing of of the filter. This maintenance measure incurs extra cost, which can be easily avoided by appropriate filter selection.

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

Low-cost filters may initially appear appealing from the point of view of price. However, it would not only compromise the air quality but also lead to frequent shutdowns and interrupted operation, as frequent maintenance would be needed. In this context, regular visual inspection, monitoring and air sampling could prove to be quantifiable tools in detecting poor indoor air quality.

Proper installations of air filters are highly critical in helping air filters to perform as per expectations. Inappropriate installation, as shown in Figure 3, increases the measure of pressure drop of the filter and affects the overall performance of the air handing unit.

Aluminium crimple filters are commonly used in the fresh and pre-filtration stages in the Gulf States. This type of filter comes with the following caveats:

• Low in efficiency
• Has high dust-holding capacity
• Its filtration media can corrode and disintegrate and possibly get introduced into the air stream

Figure 4 shows concrete evidence of the effects of corrosion of aluminium crimple filters, which are common in humid and seaside installations.

Another important aspect of filtration is providing a leakage-free installation, whether in the pre or final stages of filtration. Leaks within or around the filter defeat the intended purpose of filter installation and negatively affect both the filter performance and its life span. Figure 5 shows two examples of filter leakages for pre and final filters.

All of the above measures emphasise the “preventative” aspect of air filtration and the role it plays in providing improved air quality and in protecting the HVAC equipment. What is important to realise is that higher efficiency filters are now available in a more aerodynamic design with lower pressure drop. A great start would be to stop thinking about air filtration as an HVAC accessory and consider it as the sole line of defence of our respiratory and HVAC systems. Our attitude towards air filtration should, therefore, change, so that we begin to regard it as an integrated and influential segment of the HVAC design.

WHERE DO WE STAND?

Combining the knowledge of air filtration and HVAC design is the key to providing solutions engineered to enhance the indoor air quality. But we still need to ask a few relevant questions: Are our indoor spaces designed to prevent the spread of airborne contaminants? Or are the air distribution systems enhancing their contaminant transmission? What can air filtration solutions do to tackle these contamination issues? What precautions can we exercise to prevent our ventilation systems from exposing us to greater risk by circulating a contaminant? No matter what our answers might be to these compelling questions, risking indoor air quality in residential and hospital buildings is simply unthinkable and unacceptable.

What are the HVACR opportunities in the land of sunny BRIC optimism? Story and photographs: B Surendar

By all appearances, India has got the momentum. Backed by strong domestic demand and an eight per cent growth rate – some would argue it is closer to seven – the country is on the upsurge and is bursting with the sunny BRIC optimism that is so the envy of most parts of the globe.

This clearly reflects on the HVACR industry in the country, which many estimate, is growing at 25%. Nowhere was this more in evidence that at the 2011 edition of ACREX, the largest HVACR show in the country, where exhibitors and visitors packed a space that was at least five times the size of the HVACR component of the 2010 edition of The Big 5 Show in Dubai. And the visitors to the show, held in New Delhi, were not mere catalogue-pickers but decision makers, with intent and serious enquiries in their mind.

“The HVAC market in India is booming,” says Vikas Tripathi, Head of the Marketing Division (Cooling) at industry heavy weight, Thermax, which among other products, manufactures vapour absorption chillers. “India has withstood the challenge of recession, and it has hardly impacted the growth story.”

Prior to the recession, the focus was on infrastructure. Once the dust and the doubts settled and once people and companies overcame the fear factor, it has been business as usual. If at all anything, the recession changed the composition of projects. In the words of Prabir Kumar Sen, Assistant Vice President (HVAC) at leading MEP contracting company, Sterling & Wilson, earlier, shopping malls drew all the attention, with 10-15 malls in every big city. After the recession, the balance shifted towards the industrial sector. “Today, of the total HVAC business, at least 25% is related to the power or steel sectors. Plus, a lot of automobile companies have been set up in the country. Companies like Tata Motors, Daimler, Fiat, Volkswagen and Skoda. We at Sterling & Wilson have done the HVAC for all these. Automobile giants, like these, have set up large factories, which need large air conditioning and ventilation systems.” Adds Tripathi: “The demand for our vapour absorption chillers is very high from the industrial sector. Almost 80% of the demand is from such industries as pharma, chemicals and refineries.”

Other powerful drivers are the information technology (IT), healthcare, hospitality and cold chain sectors, plus airport renovation and metro railway projects. Ten years ago, the services industry in India constituted 20% of the country’s GDP; today, it is 50%, says Sandeep Dahiya, Senior Manager in the Building Efficiency division of Johnson Controls (JCI). And air conditioning is not a luxury but a necessity in the services industry, he adds. IT and ITES projects are leading a big boom. Says Tripathi, “Large IT complexes and special economic zones (SEZs) have been coming up in the last two to three years.” Adds P K Goel of JCI: “The India story is looking good. SEZs are happening, five star hotels by the dozen are happening. Healthcare is a key area of focus. There is an inadequate supply of hospitals. This is a country where you need people to do something about healthcare, and as a result, healthcare has come into the private industry, and some, like Fortis and Apollo, are taking the initiative to establish a strong infrastructure.”

Navin Valrani, Executive Director, Al Shirawi Group, which distributes ALP’s range of ducting products in the GCC and India, including the ALP Activa Antimicrobial and InSafe technologies to hospital operating theatres, clean rooms, surgical suites and labs, validates Goel’s statement when he says he sees potential in the pharma and hospital sectors in India. “We are doing fairly decent volumes in India, and this year, we anticipate explosive growth. We are looking at 10 installations in India in 2011.”

Cold chain is another sector with plenty of potential for growth, especially considering the country has a long way to go to make the system robust and efficient. Varun Pahwa, Executive Vice President at Desiccant Rotors International, which supports the food industry with humidity-control products, bemoans the fact that 40-50% of certain food products are wasted owing to inadequate preservation. In his view, there is a large vacuum that needs to be filled to improve preservation practices – and quickly, especially considering the fact that the food industry has started booming. “There is a lot of scope for refrigeration,” he says. “Cold storage is taking off.”

Adds Sen of Sterling & Wilson: “Cold chain represents a big prospect, but somebody has to look at it in totality. Even now, vegetables get rotten in the farms themselves. If refrigerated, they can even be exported. For instance, more than 10% of the country’s potato harvest gets rotten in the field, owing to the absence of cold store facilities. During the harvest season, we cannot consume all, so there is a surplus. And that’s why we see a fluctuation in prices.

In addition to cold stores, there is a need for improvement in refrigerated transportation, says Vikash Sekhani, Director at Safe A&T Technology. “Transporting refrigerated goods is not just about the equipment, you need good roads,” he says.

Perhaps the only sector that has not fully got back to its feet after the recession-blimp that India went through, is the residential sector. Palpably, the residential sector has been slow in its progress. Despite that, there are signs of prospects for business. A key change, Pahwa says, is a tilt towards luxury villas. The big players, like DLF and Unitech, are addressing this need, and more. In fact, a vast majority of the DLF projects are massive in scale, and cogen is figuring in the discussions, Pahwa says.

The slowness in recovery of the residential sector is only in relative terms. Large project sites are being demarcated, and the billboards are being put up. “It’s the early Dubai days kind of progress,” says Goel, who had a long stint in the HVAC industry in the GCC. “Some of the projects are taking shape – you can see the buildings coming out of the ground. And that’s not only in New Delhi but also in the outskirts of Mumbai and Chennai. And smaller cities have done even better, probably because the land prices in those places are far more controlled compared to the prices in New Delhi and in Mumbai.”

Hand in hand with the real estate developments is the strong awareness on green buildings, and that has opened up opportunities. The green building movement, Pahwa says, has been endorsed by builders in the country. Large LEED-certified projects are coming up across the country, and some, like in Chennai, have even claimed carbon credits.

It’s not just a case of new construction but also existing projects that are getting the LEED attention. The iconic Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi has won a LEED Platinum retrofit project.

Oftentimes, the green building route is taken up more to drive up a brand, some in the industry feel. “I think the jury is out on the issue, but in my view, as far as developers are concerned, LEED is more of a marketing tool than to bring the energy consumption down,” Goel says.

At the same time, there is a concerted endeavour towards energy efficiency. In the eyes of many in the industry, the customer has become very energy-efficiency conscious. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency, which comes under the country’s Ministry of Power, has instituted a star rating system to label all products as environmentally friendly. “There is an aspiration to buy five-star-rated equipment,” Sekhani says. “It is not that people are conscious about the environment, though, but for saving on energy.” Adds Dr Sandeep Garg of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency: “We have a voluntary labelling programme in place, and there is a market transformation taking place. And as more and more people buy the five-star label, it will get pushed up. In 2007-2008, there was no five-star category and more of one-, two- and three-star categories. Today, we are seeing a 12% growth rate in five-star label, which means people are asking for better quality. The impact of the programme is avoided power generation capacity.”

The end-user is not only chasing higher energy-efficiency labels but also is conscious about buying the best products that are available in the market, and this has been a magnet for international players to enter the country. Till two years ago, Pahwa says, the air-side market was predominantly dotted by Indian players. Today, however, he adds, we are getting to see a lot of M&A activity. Today, companies like JCI, Trane, Carrier and McQuay have announced plans to come into the air side market through the M&A route.

VTS is another company that has entered the AHU market in India. The company’s Managing Director, Ravi Kant Puri, is upbeat about business. VTS entered India three years ago as a trading company. In 2010, it acquired a company in India with the intention of manufacturing AHUs in the country, which it commenced this month. “We took this decision to manufacture for faster delivery and better pricing,” Puri says. “You cannot compete if the products are manufactured in Europe.”

Puri says the company has set aggressive targets for growth. Estimating the market size for AHUs in India at 100 million euros ($141.5 million), he adds that VTS would aim to achieve eight to nine million euros ($11.3 million to $12.7 million) of sales in 2011. “Our product has power-saving features, and so we are confident of achieving our target,” he says.

The influx of international AHU brands in the Indian landscape, coupled with the strong green building movement, has had a galvanising effect on established Indian brands to invest more than before on R&D and to deliver innovations. Fedders Lloyd is one such company that is admittedly massively investing in R&D. The company’s Assistant Manager (Sales), Dinesh Munjal, says it has set for itself an $11-million target for the current financial year, and is optimistic of achieving it. “We have introduced AHUs with heat-recovery wheels,” Munjal says. “To serve the pharma industry, we have incorporated a provision for HEPA-filters in our AHU design. And for the hospital sector, we supply AHUs with UV tubes in them.”

The AHUs market is but one among other markets that have witnessed an upswing in business. The India story looks attractive, and there is a feel-good factor about it. If the buzz at ACREX is anything to go by, India presents a wealth of opportunities. At the same time, it poses challenges. While suppliers have arguably never had it so good, the traditional challenges remain. For instance, the payment terms for suppliers are not good. Delayed payments are a reality, Pahwa says, so it is important to securitise payments and not just be enthusiastic about selling products. From a contracting point of view, Sen of Sterling & Wilson describes how owners of smaller shopping malls, for instance, tend to buy the high side on their own. “They only want to sub-contract the ducting,” Sen says, “because they feel a contractor will put a margin on ducts and AHUs and decide to buy on their own.” Adds Goel: “The owner thinks of buying part of the equipment himself, gives it to the contractor and says, ‘Give me a labour rate’. And what the contractor starts as a project is not what he finishes. There are far too many variations and extras, because upfront planning and drawing is not direct. There is a great measure of improvisation.”

Despite all these, the India story is a tantalising one. It is where the action is, and in the right volumes.

We continue our coverage of the Climate Control Summit. The following are excerpts of reactions from two of the participants (a ‘witness’ and a ‘juror’)

It was a pleasure for Techem to participate in the Climate Control Summit, and to have had the opportunity to be one of the ‘witnesses’ in the courtroom.

As discussed during the two-day event, smart sustainable energy is crucial for the developer, district cooling supplier and the end user. The demand for cooling energy is vital in the Middle East’s harsh desert climate. Air conditioning in the Middle East is an essential service, with obvious life-safety implications. Therefore, even greater attention needs to be directed to enhancing efficiency, maintaining reliability and ensuring safety and security of supply. Simultaneously, the energy supply should be affordable for the end user and used carefully by him.

I look forward to continuing our discussion with you to find solutions and attractive models for all market participants, such as the utility provider, developer and the end user.

It is important to ensure that the recommendations that came out of the Summit go to the right people and, from there, arrive at ways and means to implement them. It is important to conduct workshops at the governmental level and not just implement but also adapt to existing legislation without affecting comfort cooling. And later, there is an opportunity to export this model in the GCC to the entire cooling community the world over. We are the leaders for district cooling the world over.

– Hans Altmann, Regional Manager (MENA), Techem Energy Services Middle East FZCO

Conclusively, the individual project parameters would determine which system is best suited for the purpose. However, the jurors believe district cooling being the more environment friendly and sustainable system, it would be the preferable system in the larger social interest, provided the industry proves the cost effectiveness to the end-users. Currently, 10% of the local cooling load demand is being met by district cooling, mainly owing to various problems the district cooling industry is currently facing, including the issues related to finance, lack of proper legislation, lack of transparency and mistrust among the stakeholders. The onus lies with the industry to ensure that it overcomes all the hurdles and makes further progress.

– Ramesh Kumar Prasad, Senior Portfolio Contracts Manager, Abu Dhabi Airports Company

Food-safety seminar provokes a torrent of responses from the food industry and the refrigeration industry. Story: B Surendar | Photographs: Rey Delante

The food industry seized the opportunity of an interaction with engineering consultants, contractors, and suppliers and service providers of refrigeration equipment to express its concerns and present a catalogue of woes. The engineers, in turn, described what they felt were shortcomings in the end-users – retailers, wholesalers, caterers and food processors.

The churn, however, eventually helped the two sides understand each other better and opened avenues for solutions to outstanding issues and for sustained collaboration. Dubai Municipality was in attendance and clarified different aspects and presented a roadmap of things to come, which assuaged feelings and ushered in optimism that the situation was bound to improve on several fronts.

The occasion was a two-day seminar, called Food Chain, held on May 9 and 10 in Dubai. Organised and conducted by Climate Control Middle East, the event spotlighted handling and storage issues through roundtables and seminars, which probably for the first time, brought the two sides face to face.

For long, end-users have been complaining of the poor quality of the equipment supplied to them – most notably, compressors, which have required replacements in large volumes – poor installation practices, lack of adequate after-sales support and poor training offered to their own technical personnel by the suppliers of equipment and service providers.

During the seminar – in particular, during a roundtable involving the food industry and the engineering community – all these issues welled up, with consultants and contractors, in particular, the target of complaints. A key issue that end users raised was poor design and installation practices. Bharat Asarpota, the Maintenance Manager at Emarat, who also moderated the roundtable, spoke of several instances where consultants simply did not do their job. Pointing out that Emarat had several convenience stores in the country, he said that the mistakes in the first store were being repeated “in the 85th store”. This was because, he said, consultants followed a cut-and-paste approach, completely unmindful of the specific requirements of each store or each location. “They don’t revisit any of their earlier projects to assess and evaluate if everything is working as per plan,” Asarpota said. “As a result, the mistakes are being repeated.”

Fadhel Al Kazemi, the CEO of Al Kazema Holding, in Kuwait, echoed Asarpota’s views when he said all the cold stores ended up looking alike. “The concept that a particular cold store has to be as per the requirement of the customer, is not there,” Al Kazemi said. They don’t bother to check if it is integrated with processing.”

Ravi Chandran, the General Manager of Dubai-based specialised catering-services providers, Epicure and Health Factory, was another end user who expressed his disappointment with consultants. He said he had learnt his lessons and, if it came to assigning a new project, he would like to see who had installed what and their track record. “I won’t go to a new comer,” he said.

Richard Sprenger, the Chairman of UK-based Highfield, said a common element missing in the whole picture was contingency planning – something that consultants should factor in. “Any equipment we have got, we can be sure, it is going to break down at some point,” Sprenger said. “A cheap equipment will probably break down in five minutes whereas a good equipment will do so in 10 years’ time.” The questions, he said, were how do we cope with breakdown? How soon can we get a replacement?

Asked Chandran: “What is Plan B?” What if all your refrigeration equipment breaks down?” A lack of contingency planning could mean losing customers owing to a delay in supply of food. Al Kazemi described how he was once at the receiving end of poor contingency planning in Kuwait and faced the prospect of losing 30,000 tonnes of food, because he had problems with the ammonia pumps at his facility. He described in frightening detail how the company struggled to locate the equipment, considering there was no alternative facility to accommodate such a large capacity of food. Eventually, one of the personnel, who was from Denmark, swiftly flew to Europe and back with the replacements. The fact that he was European, Al Kazemi said, helped in cutting down on the time it would have taken to get a visa. The moral of the story, Al Kazemi said, was never to underestimate that things could go wrong. Referring to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Al Kazemi said, “Standby is good to face hostile weather conditions and regional wars. Food is important for the stabilisation of the country.”

Sprenger said he needed to see consultants plan for maximum demand and not average demand. “When people are designing, are they taking in the maximum usage? Sprenger said, alluding to the need for a more thoughtful approach. “Are they thinking of how the unit is going to be used? I have seen abuse of equipment when bottles of water are put in. Bottles of water brought in with no refrigeration and put into the units. Can the refrigeration cope? And what will happen when the food is hot?”

Asarpota pointed out to a larger issue that, perhaps, explained the conundrum of what the end users characterised as inadequate service from consultants – the lack of specialised refrigeration consultants in the country. “There is no refrigeration consultant in the market today,” he said. “The MEP engineering is the subset of the design engineer. Refrigeration is just another box in the drawing. There is no regard to where food is being prepared and stored.”

At the same time, Asarpota said end users could alleviate the situation by communicating with consultants. The onus is as much on the end users to be alert and attentive. “When you find out you have been sold a wrong design, do you sit down with your consultant and give your inputs?” he asked. “End user participation is important.”

Equally, end-users have a responsibility in ensuring food safety. A few weeks prior to the seminar, Lars Johansson, the Director of Dew Kylsystem and a veteran of the cold chain industry in Sweden, spoke of how he had repeatedly seen retailers cutting corners at the time of constructing their facilities or even in the manner they used them, thus increasing the possibility of compromising on food safety. This aspect came up for discussion during the seminar when Richard Sprenger referred to how he had seen supermarkets handle food in a callous manner. “You, as engineers, may have the equipment running well, but if you don’t train the staff on stacking up then it is no use.

The topic of training aroused emotions, with end users complaining of how equipment manufacturers needed to do a better job at training their in-house technical personnel in operating and maintaining the equipment in the appropriate way, and with the authorities pointing out that retailers, wholesalers and food processors equally needed to ramp up their efforts in training their personnel in technical and non-technical aspects. Domingo Perez, Senior Refrigeration Engineer, at Al Bwardy, which provides engineering support services to Spinneys, said that the training ought to be done from the supervisor downwards. Even then, there was no guarantee. “I have seen people that are trained are transferred to other stations and, then, the new staff need to be trained all over again,” he said.

Perez’s words precisely conveyed the sentiment that training does not receive its due importance, be it in supermarkets or corner convenience stores. Bashir Hassan Yousif, Coordinator — Technical Committee at Dubai Municipality, said how the grocery store below his apartment was an example of inadequate training of personnel. “I have noticed how the store has continuously turned off its power even for critical food products,” he said. “This is due to lack of regulation and lack of knowledge.”

Youssif said that Dubai Municipality’s new initiative, Person In Charge (PIC), once fully implemented, would change that behaviour. “PIC will work,” he said. “It has to work, because everybody is involved in it. We don’t want to dilute food safety.” (PIC will come up for detailed discussion in the next issue of Climate Control Middle East.)

Bemoaning the lack of importance given to training, Sprenger hoped that PIC would turn things around. “The one that Dubai has put in with PIC is the best food training I have seen anywhere in the world,” Sprenger said. “We have to see two to three years from now if implementation matches theory.” The mentality among end users, Sprenger said, is that training reduces profitability, as opposed to a culture that training protect profit. This, he added, has to change. “Otherwise, he said, “people will pay lip service to it, and it won’t work. If the manager (in the supermarket) turns a blind eye to the problem, then there is no use. The manager must pull everyone together.”

Our coverage of Food Chain will continue in the next issue.

Next issue, we look at:

• Refrigerated transportation
• Person In Charge (PIC)

While business growth in the region in the downturn is a key concern for compressor manufacturers, so is the approach adopted by end-users to installing the equipment, which they say, leaves a lot to be desired. Valeria Camerino looks at the myriad issues surrounding the compressors industry …

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Kuwait represent the biggest markets in the region for both air conditioning and refrigeration, accounting for over 80% of the total business volume in terms of production and consumption. This is according to Amitesh Singh, Marketing Manager – End Users, Retails Solutions, at Emerson.

The company, which focuses on residential and commercial air conditioning, as well as commercial refrigeration, estimates the market size to be in the region of $350 to $375 million.

Singh acknowledges that, like its competitors, Emerson reported a contraction in business volumes, as a result of the downturn. “Like everyone else, we also saw a slowdown, as many new projects were stalled and even cancelled,” he says. “The slowdown had an impact, but we believe we were also one of the first ones to come out of this downturn and have seen very good recovery since early 2010.” A key reason for business success, Singh said, was that the company continued to invest in new product technologies even during the downturn.

Stefan Leitl, Managing Director, Middle East at German refrigerant compressor manufacturer, Bitzer, has also witnessed a challenging time, but the refrigeration business, he says, wasn’t much affected by the global financial crisis. However, he concedes that in 2009, business was slower compared to the previous year. “The market has picked up in 2010, the best year in our business,” Leitl says. “The first quarter of 2011 seems also promising.”

Although Leitl cannot quantify the size of the GCC compressor market, he points out that compressors are the main part of refrigeration and air conditioning systems. In addition to sales through distributors and OEMs, there are several suppliers from Europe and other regions serving the Middle East market, he says.

Two key areas of growth and perceived opportunity in the GCC are Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Although Emerson sees increasing opportunities in Saudi Arabia, the company feels the Qatari market hasn’t taken off yet. “I believe Qatar will see more projects and growth opportunities in the next few years, in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup as it gets ready with the required infrastructure,” Singh says.

Adds Leitl: “Business in Saudi Arabia and Qatar is growing. We already have dealers in these regions, and they are doing well. Moreover, many UAE-based contactors have expanded into these markets.”

Emerson has already a distribution network in place for both Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The majority of its business is conducted through a distribution and contractors network; it directly deals with end users, along with a local partner, only for certain business services.

In keeping with its strategy of investing in new product technologies, Emerson is working with regional manufacturers to launch high-efficiency systems that would comply with the new local regulations that have come into play. Singh points out that high-efficiency scroll compressor condensing units, with specialised liquid/vapour injection technology, are gaining acceptance from both end users and contractors. “We have launched a range of digital compressors for air conditioning applications, which are getting popular as part of the VRF technology,” he says. Among them, Vilter is being introduced as a single screw compressor technology for industrial refrigeration and the only compressor to offer a 15-year bearing warranty.

As for Bitzer, it is currently undertaking a number projects in different areas of the refrigeration business. Leitl says that Bitzer has supplied refrigerant compressors for most of the hotel projects in the region. The company is also involved in a number of cold storage warehouse projects. Within the air conditioning segment, it sells its products through regional OEMs and several international companies, exporting their chillers to the Middle East.

What are the key magnets that draw clients to the products, though? In Singh’s opinion, end customers value energy efficiency and product reliability, and cost is not the only factor influencing the decision making. “Customer training and education play an important role,” he adds. “We do conduct regular training sessions, with support from our local partners in the region to create increased awareness.”

In his opinion, more needs to be done to educate end customers, contractors and channels on the product values. However, he explains that this approach is more effective for the refrigeration business than for the OEM side of the business, where price plays an important role after completing the product-approval stage. “We provide extensive training modules for customers in the region to make sure the products are applied correctly. Our trademark training session for trade customers, called COSS (Compressor Operation & Service Seminar) is very popular with our customers in the region,” he says.

The majority of Emerson products carry the mandatory quality and safety requirements defined in the developed economies. Additionally, the company carries out specific inspection and certification required for certain markets, such as Saudi Arabia. “We do not do any local tests on the compressors,” Singh explains. “All our compressors come factory-tested for quality, safety and reliability.”

Like Emerson, Bitzer also focuses on energy savings, in the words of Leitl. It also focuses on eco-friendly refrigerants, he adds. Bitzer manufacturers compressors with suction gas-cooled frequency inverters that can operate across a wide range of frequencies, and has also introduced a new series of reciprocating compressors, the ECOLINE series, optimised for medium temperature R134a applications.

With regard to screw compressors, it has launched a new CS3 series, as well as a new series of compressors for use with CO2 in both sub-critical and trans-critical applications. “You can find all kinds of customers in the market,” Leitl says. “Many of them focus on quality, and ‘Made in Germany’ is the first priority. If they use a cheap component it may also damage the compressor.”

With regard to regional installation practices, Leitl says that although there are many companies which hire qualified personnel to carry out the installations, there are also several technicians following wrong procedures.

Emerson’s Singh, who advocates for regional based testing centres for air conditioning systems to help enforce the new local regulations being currently implemented, believes that contractors and maintenance companies across the region should pay more attention to the installation of refrigeration products.

“We have taken up many initiatives to train and educate the contractors in the region on the right applications and best practices in the refrigeration business,” he points out. “We have incorporated several safety features in our refrigeration compressors and condensing units to overcome some of the application and installation issues.”

It is now widely accepted that natural refrigerants are energy efficient and environment friendly. In this interview, Thomas Spänich, Member of the Board at Eurammon, makes a strong case for their use in large building air conditioning systems, by citing successful examples of recent projects.

According to the German Energy Agency, the operation of ventilation and air conditioning systems accounts for around 20% of all energy consumed by commercial buildings. How do you see the situation?

During the summer months, modern buildings with glass facades heat up – in some cases, considerably. The use of IT systems and office automation also make buildings heat up. So, in this day and age, air conditioning of commercial buildings has become almost essential, even in our part of the world. In the context of constantly increasing energy prices, the use of natural refrigerants offers the possibility of energy-efficient, environment-friendly air conditioning for such premises.

Which natural refrigerants are suitable for use in commercial buildings?

Basically, all natural refrigerants, that is ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrocarbons can be used in building air conditioning systems. For a long time now, these substances have played a successful role in industrial refrigeration but have not been used to such a great extent hitherto in air conditioning systems. However, numerous examples from recent years show that natural refrigerants are ideal for these projects.

Where are natural refrigerants used for air conditioning today?

The main focus in Central Europe is on the air conditioning of larger building complexes. These include, for example, exhibition halls, congress centres or airport terminals, where ammonia-operated water chillers are frequently used. The liquid chilling units are available with smaller refrigerating capacities from about 30 kilowatts. The air is conditioned by a distributor circuit using water or another secondary refrigerant.

Large capacities exceeding 2,000 kilowatts can be achieved among others using several chilling units equipped with screw compressors. For example, ammonia chillers have been used since 2004 for the air conditioning in Terminal 3 of Stuttgart Airport.

What is the situation with smaller capacity ranges?

Ammonia and CO2 are best suited to these applications which are used, among others, for office air conditioning. However, at the moment, components for systems with smaller capacity are still being produced in relatively small quantities, which make them about 20% more expensive than systems with synthetic refrigerants. On the other hand, the higher costs are offset by good energy efficiency, so that, as a rule, the additional costs can be recovered within about two to three years.

Hydrocarbons can also be used as refrigerants in company IT and server rooms. Greenpeace’s IT and office rooms in Vienna are, for example, cooled with propane. Statutory filling restrictions apply to hydrocarbons on account of their flammability, so that, up to now, it has only been possible to use them on a smaller scale. However, it would be better if the restrictions were made dependent on the conditions prevailing in each particular case, allowing larger filling quantities – for example, if a system is erected outside a building.

CO2 has not been used for very long in air conditioning. Can you tell us why?

For a long time it was not possible to use CO2 in air conditioning, because the components, which have to be rated for the higher pressures in operation with carbon dioxide, were simply not available. Moreover, CO2 solutions were deemed to be less energy-efficient than applications with synthetic refrigerants. Meanwhile, economical solutions are now also available for office buildings with capacities between 50 and 340 kilowatts. Carbon dioxide is used, for example, to cool the computing centre at the ABM Amro Bank in London. In the long term, carbon dioxide will see increasing use in systems with smaller capacities of up to 500 kilowatts.

CO2 is not flammable and is chemically inactive, giving it the broadest acceptance in the general public of all natural alternatives in unsupervised small and mini systems. But further development work is necessary here, as at present, no suppliers manufacture the components in larger quantities, which would generate competitive prices. Research is currently also looking increasingly at the use of CO2 in heat pumps. The corresponding results could also be significant for future air conditioning solutions.

Eurammon has been advocating the use of natural refrigerants for 15 years now. Which particular advantages do they offer?

On the one hand, natural refrigerants are inexpensive, readily available raw materials. The differences in price to synthetic refrigerants already make themselves felt, for example, when filling a system for the first time and also, particularly where leakage losses are concerned. Furthermore, natural refrigerants are extremely energy-efficient. Ammonia as refrigerant has verifiably the best thermodynamic properties, and needs only relatively little effort to generate refrigerating capacity.

While the efficiency of an air conditioning system depends more on its overall concept than on the particular refrigerant being used, a number of current projects indicate that systems are particularly efficient and environmentally friendly when operating with natural refrigerants. In addition, natural refrigerants do not contribute to depleting the ozone layer and have no or only negligible influence on the greenhouse effect. They are, therefore, absolutely unrivalled in terms of the climate.

What has to happen to make sure that natural refrigerants are used more frequently in air conditioning systems in future?

While the use of applications with natural refrigerants is on the increase, these systems are still not self-evident. Already, the planning and also the implementation, operation and maintenance of air conditioning systems using natural refrigerants must be accompanied by an intensified exchange of knowledge about the properties and possible uses of natural refrigerants and the handling of their corresponding systems. This also includes bringing technological know-how in the form of example projects to less developed countries, where natural refrigerants have scarcely been used up to now.

Do you see any applications with natural refrigerants as playing a particularly seminal role in future?

Heat pump applications with natural refrigerants are particularly in trend, with heating systems making further use of the waste heat produced by industrial refrigeration systems and computing centres or purified wastewater from sewage treatment plants. Little energy is consumed by the actual heating-up process on account of the heat that is already available. It is, meanwhile, possible to reach temperatures of up to 80°C in this way.

Thomas Spänich, a Refrigeration Engineer, is Manager for customised systems for engineering and sales at GEA Grasso, Berlin.

John Mandyck, Vice President for Sustainability and Environmental Strategies at Carrier, elaborates on how he sees the GCC shaping up in its green initiatives

What is your take on the sustainability consciousness in the GCC? I ask this, because the region is the highest per capita consumer of power and water?

Sustainability is evolutionary, and the important point is that it (the sustainability movement) has started in the Middle East – we see great evidence of it in the GCC, such as the interest in LEED certifications and Estidama, which I feel is a great approach in Abu Dhabi.

While sustainability has taken root in the Middle East, like elsewhere, it has a long way to go. The long-term economic prospects of the region look good, so there is no reason why the Middle East cannot be the leader in sustainability. I see a positive approach to sustainability in the Middle East. In the earlier stage of the global sustainability movement, there was a lot of excitement and, sometimes, green washing, but I haven’t seen evidence of that here in the Middle East.

What needs to be done to bring sustainability to the mainstream and as a part of the national consciousness? And how can Carrier help in this regard?

We have been a leader in the green building movement from the beginning. Carrier was the first company to be associated with the USGBC when the green building movement started; this was back in 1991. And we have gone on to be the only company in the world that has been a founding member in India, Singapore and France. Here, we are closely working with the Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC). We have a long tradition of helping promote the green building movement around the world.

Also, we have been developing technology for sustainability. We have been simultaneously investing to bring energy-efficient technology for refrigeration- and cooling-related products.

Further, we have launched the Distinguished Sustainability Lecture Series at the Higher Colleges of Technology, in the UAE. For this, we will be bringing four global experts to share their expertise. They are external to Carrier and are leaders at a global level.

The UAE is the first place in the world to have the Lecture Series. We have inaugurated it here. From here, we will take it to the rest of the world.

We are the first company in the world to have the license to teach LEED. We are an official LEED Education Provider.

Do you think the world, in general, has moved from using economic benefits as the sole driver for sustainability-related initiatives? Do you feel initiatives are as much driven by an urgent need to save the planet?

Sustainability will succeed best when people see value in it. There is no shame in recognising that sustainability can be good for business. In construction, HVAC solutions can lower opex for businesses and property owners. We have seen green buildings became more popular in the US, not just because they are good for the environment but also because people see value in them from an operations point of view.

I do see it happening. It is value versus sacrifice for me. Sometimes, people view environment as a personal sacrifice, be it product choice or comfort. But we can surely build buildings that are good for the environment and also provide comfort and provide opex relief, thus giving payback for building owners.

Are you happy with the current bouquet of synthetic refrigerants? Do you see a role for natural refrigerants (ammonia, for instance), if toxicity- and flammability-related issues can be addressed?

Carrier will have the right refrigerants for all its applications. We have been on a long evolution of refrigerants development, and each step is better than the incumbent we replace.

In 1994, we were the first to cease CFC, two years before its phase-out in the US and 16 years ahead of international markets. We were able to reduce GWP by 80%. We recognise that the HFC refrigerant we use has GWP, and we are investing in research.

We are leaders in Europe in using CO2 for commercial refrigeration systems. We take CO2 out of the atmosphere and use it for commercial refrigeration. This year, we have introduced hybrid cooling, which uses CO2 for low-temperature applications and R134a for medium-temperature applications.

We also have propane-based systems. We introduced a new unit in Europe for convenience store applications. When it comes to stationary air conditioning in the Middle East, there is need for more research. There is a need to be environmentally effective, cost effective, energy efficient and to have to comply with safety codes. We haven’t found a refrigerant that will meet these requirements, and we continue to look. Till then, we will use R134a for commercial and 410 for residential and for light-commercial.

Broadly speaking, could you please elaborate on Carrier’s recent sustainability-related initiatives?

Green products start from a green company. This is our fundamental belief. So we have started our initiatives with our own factories, our own operations. We recently achieved our 1st LEED Gold factory, in Mexico. And three of our factories are LEED-certified for Existing Buildings. So we are going to make strides in our environmental footprint. We are going to push the envelope to bring more energy-efficient systems and invest in research of refrigerants.