Another award for the serial winner in this competition, the machinery and equipment manufacturer and technology leader GEA: The British Refrigeration & Air Conditioning magazine (RAC) has now honoured GEA with the RAC Cooling Industry Awards in the category ‘Contractor of the Year 2020’. The globally renowned award recognises companies that have made a special commitment to environmentally friendly and innovative solutions in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. For GEA, already a 2018 winner at the RAC Cooling Industry Awards for the ‘Building Energy Project’ category, it was not the only success at the 2020 Awards. GEA also came out on top in the ‘Building Energy Project of the Year’ category, receiving a ‘highly commended’ rating.
The RAC Cooling Industry Awards judges praised GEA’s strong commitment at the awards, which were held online for pandemic reasons. ‘GEA demonstrated great foresight and found a cost-effective solution for the customer within the given timeframe through its great expertise and decades of experience in refrigeration. Furthermore, GEA also took the opportunity to improve the flexibility of the plant’s operation and realised energy savings.’
The project saw GEA replace the existing freezer at the Mackie’s Aberdeenshire plant with a design using an ammonia and CO2 low-carbon, energy-efficient cooling system to work alongside an absorption chiller. It was the first large-scale ice cream production plant in Scotland to combine biomass heat and absorption cooling. This innovative solution helped Mackie’s achieve its plan and ambitious target of CO2 reductions of 90 percent and energy cost savings of 70 to 80 percent. The new refrigeration system is one of the most advanced in Europe. The gases of ‘hydrochlorofluorocarbons’ (HCFCs) previously used in the refrigeration systems, which have a high global warming potential, have been replaced by ammonia in GEA’s solution. Ammonia is a natural, environmentally friendly refrigerant that has no impact on global warming or ozone depletion. For more visit gea.com
