ATMOsphere, publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com and organizer of the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit 2024 on natural refrigerant-based cooling and heating, announced the winners of the ATMO Awards/Europe for 2024 during a ceremony on November 25 at the Summit in Prague, Czech Republic.
The awards honor excellence in the development and implementation of natural refrigerant-based HVAC&R systems. Awards were given in five categories:
- Best-in-Sector/Retail End User – to Migros Ticino; accepting the award was Andreas Skory, Facility and Technical Manager at Migros Ticino.
- Best-in-Sector/Industrial End User – to Nestlé; accepting the award was Vincent Grass, Global Refrigeration Leader, Corporate Operations – Engineering Services at Nestlé.
- Innovation of the Year/Heat Pumps – to Fenagy; accepting the award was CEO Kim Christensen
- Innovation of the Year/Refrigeration – to OLAB; accepting the award were Giacomo Bottura, Sales Department Manager, and Alberto Bottura, Co-Owner and Managing Director.
- Person of the Year – to Michael Kauffeld, Professor at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences Institute of Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning and Environmental Engineering.
The awards were based on industry nominations and other criteria. The Best-in-Sector and Person of the Year awards were selected by ATMOsphere, which also prepared a shortlist of the Innovation of the Year finalists. Online voting leading up to and at ATMO Europe 2024 determined the winner of the Innovation of the Year awards.
Best-in-Sector/End Users
The Best-in-Sector awards are given to end users, one retail and one industrial, that have done the most to advance adoption of natural refrigerant-based systems.
Supermarket chain Migros Ticino, one of Swiss retailer Migros Group’s 10 regional cooperatives, is the winner of the ATMO Europe 2024 Best-in-Sector/Retail End User award.
The retailer has been working with CO2 (R744) since 2009, and, as of July 2024, all but one of the chain’s 33 supermarkets have installed transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems. The final store is scheduled to be upgraded in 2025.
Migros Ticino has also been a leader in leveraging integrated CO2 systems to boost energy efficiency. By the end of the year it will have integrated CO2 systems installed in 14 locations, including its new Bellinzona Nord store, which is 100% energy self-sufficient through the use of PV panels.
Swiss multinational food and beverage processor Nestlé has won the ATMO Europe 2024 Best-in-Sector/Industrial End User award.
Nestlé, which owns more than 2,000 brands and is present in 186 countries, has been working with natural refrigerants since 1986, replacing systems using high-GWP refrigerants with those using hydrocarbons, CO₂, ammonia (R717) or a combination of these.
In partnership with Star Refrigeration and through the utilization of Copeland/Vilter single screw compressors, Nestlé has pushed the limits of hot water generation with ammonia heat pumps, achieving hot water temperatures of 90°C (194°F).
The company uses ammonia heat pumps in several of its facilities, including its infant-formula plant in Nunspeet, the Netherlands, and at its Vevey, Switzerland, headquarters. At its HQ, Nestlé has said it will soon commission the site’s third ammonia heat pump to produce hot water, enabling the building to reach zero carbon from an energy standpoint.
Innovations of the Year
The Innovation of the Year awards are given to companies that have produced natural refrigerant-based products that have had, or are expected to have, a significant impact on the market. These products can be complete systems or components of systems.
Fenagy won the vote for the Innovation of the Year/Heat Pump award for its high-temperature isobutane (R600a) heat pump.
The heat pump can deliver hot water up to 95°C (203°F), regardless of the return temperature. It is designed to provide optimal performance up to 1200kW (341TR) and is tailored to customer operational needs. It is a water-to-water solution with a small refrigerant charge and can be used in the energy sector and industrial processes as a mechanical sub-cooler and as a booster in district heating systems.
“It’s been very exciting for us to start a new journey working with hydrocarbons,” said Christensen. “Thank you for this prize. It means a lot.”
In addition to Fenagy, the shortlist of candidates for the heat pump award included:
- Siemens’ MVL702 magnetic expansion valve
- Copeland/Vilter’s VQ95 single-screw ammonia-based industrial heat pump
- Euroklimat’s isobutane high-temperature heat pump
OLAB won the vote for the Innovation of the Year/Refrigeration award for its PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances)-free O-ring gaskets in CO2 components.
Instead of using gaskets made with PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene or Teflon), OLAB uses EPDM (ethylene propylene) O-rings in its products to provide leak-proof sealings. OLAB’s PFAS-free gaskets are possibly the world’s first and they are used in CO2 products like brass ball valves and changeover valves.
“We just want to say thank you for understanding the technology behind our little gasket as well as the passion we put into our products,” said Giacomo Bottura.
In addition to OLAB, the shortlist of candidates for the refrigeration award included:
- GEA’s ammonia-based Grasso X system for data center cooling
- Refra’s CO2/propylene (R1270) cascade system
- Dorin’s CD1000 CO2 transcritical compressor
Person of the Year
The Person of the Year Award honors a single individual who has done the most to advance the adoption of natural refrigerant technology in HVAC&R applications in Europe.
Michael Kauffeld, the recipient of ATMO Europe 2024’s Person of the Year award, is a strong advocate for natural refrigerants. He has worked on natural refrigerant-based technologies as a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences since 2002 and as a project manager at the Danish Technological Institute before that.
“Thank you very much, Marc and the ATMO team, for this wonderful recognition of my almost four-decade-long work with and for natural refrigerants,” said Kauffeld in his acceptance speech. “I am very proud to receive this prestigious award today.”
In addition to writing more than 100 scientific papers, Kauffeld is the co-editor of Natural Refrigerants: Applications and Practical Guidelines, which offers a comprehensive and practical guide to working with natural refrigerants. Most recently, Kauffeld was part of a team of researchers who found that in a commercial reversible heat pump using R410A refrigerant, the amount of PFAS components by weight was less than 1%.
On day two of ATMO Europe 2024, Kauffeld will deliver a keynote address on the growing concerns surrounding the use of PFAS in the HVAC&R industry. A PFAS panel discussion will follow Kauffeld’s opening presentation.
Kauffeld’s ATMO Award win was recently recognized by the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in an article, which can be read here.
