INTARCON, a Spanish manufacturer of commercial and industrial refrigeration technologies, has joined the world’s leading natural refrigerant HVAC&R stakeholders as a silver partner of the NaturalRefrigerants.com marketplace.
Part of the Keyter Technologies Group, INTARCON produces a wide array of refrigeration units using propane (R290), CO2 (R744) and ammonia (R717). Its lineup includes monoblocs, plug-and-play chillers and refrigeration racks, serving various sectors such as supermarkets, cold storage facilities and food processing plants.
With more than 50,000 units in operation worldwide, INTARCON has established a significant presence across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Plug-and-play
Since its founding in 2007, INTARCON has focused on developing packaged refrigeration systems, prioritizing ease of installation and maintenance.
In a recent interview, German Gill, Commercial Director at INTARCON, told Marc Chasserot, ATMOsphere’s CEO and founder, “Our philosophy is to deliver fully assembled solutions [that are] easier to install and maintain. All of our solutions, except for the racks, are plug-and-play. [They are] fully assembled and tested in our labs.” ATMOsphere is the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com.
INTARCON offers a broad range of refrigeration systems tailored to meet diverse customer needs. For propane, the company produces units ranging from single-compressor monoblocs to five-compressor chiller systems, covering cooling capacities up to 600kW (170TR) and delivering glycol at −8°C (17.6°F).
The company’s Ammolite range extends cooling capacities up to 700kW (199TR) at the same temperature, offering scalable solutions for larger applications.
Efficiency is a key focus for INTARCON, with many of its units featuring advanced technologies such as inverter-driven compressors and EC fans. The company is also committed to low-charge systems, with its propane-based chillers designed to deliver 1kW (0.28TR) of cooling capacity per 90g (3.2oz) of refrigerant. The Ammolite range, which uses R717, requires only 70g (2.5oz) of refrigerant per 1kW of cooling capacity.
In recent years, the adoption of indirect refrigeration systems by retailers has driven INTARCON’s focus on chiller development.
“We have started to produce these kinds of units for supermarkets,” Gill explained. “Retailers who have been using transcritical CO2 for a long time are now transitioning to glycol indirect systems with propane chillers featuring heat recovery.”
To date, INTARCON has successfully installed these systems in supermarkets across France, Germany and the Netherlands.
“[The adoption of] indirect systems is also growing fast in Latin America,” he added.
Expanding CO2 solutions
While INTARCON has extensive experience with subcritical CO2 systems, the company is now shifting its focus toward the development of transcritical CO2 solutions.
“We are increasing our development of transcritical CO2 because the market is demanding more of these solutions at the moment,” Gill said. “With subcritical solutions, we have a lot of experience using propane as a primary refrigerant with glycol, but we need to expand our business in transcritical CO2.”
To address increasing demand, INTARCON recently completed the construction of a new 40,000m2 (430,556ft2) manufacturing facility near its headquarters in Lucena, Spain. This expansion will significantly enhance the company’s production capacity and alleviate current operational bottlenecks, explained Gill.
INTARCON’s operations are currently spread across 20 buildings at the Keyter Group facility in Lucena, each dedicated to different stages of production, including testing.
The company is moving into the new premises this summer, he added.
A second phase of construction is planned that will add an additional 30,000m2 (322,917ft2) of manufacturing space. According to the company, once complete, the facility “will be the most modern and efficient in its sector worldwide.”
“We are increasing our development of transcritical CO2 because the market is demanding more of these solutions at the moment.”
German Gill, Commercial Director at INTARCON
