Gea BluQ with the Gea CompaX compressor proves its worth in field tests

The Gea BluQ chiller with Gea CompaX, one of the world’s first semi-hermetic compact screw compressor for ammonia, is claimed to be a great success in field tests at Wolf Butterback. The company is a specialist manufacturer of Danish pastries that it sells frozen to bakeries, ready-to-cook for their customers.

In 2018 Wolf ButterBack wished to expand its capacity to accommodate business growth. As part of this expansion the company installed the Gea technology to act as a base-load machine in a system of several chillers to provide cooling power to re-cool the CO2 deep-freezing system.

Jens Geyer, head of cooling technology at Woolf ButterBack, said that he was impressed by the small footprint of the plant and the intuitive Omni control system that controls the entire chiller system. “The chiller with the Gea CompaX, has been in use here since 2018 and, in that time, has logged 15,000 operating hours, meaning it’s been in operation almost 24/7,” he said. “Even on hot summer days, with outside temperatures of up to 36°C, the compressor worked perfectly and responded impressively to load changes.”

Gea CompaX and BluQ

The Gea CompaX is one of the world’s first semi-hermetic, compact screw compressor for ammonia with a gas-cooled motor. It has a 3-in-1 design which combines the motor, compressor and oil separator into a very compact and hermetically-sealed unit. Since no mechanical seal is required the risk of ammonia leaking into the environment is drastically reduced.

The Gea BluQ chiller, with Gea CompaX at its heart, received the ‘Accelerate Europe innovation of the year’ award in 2018. The BluQ requires only 40-50 grams of ammonia content per kilowatt of cooling capacity and meets all energy efficiency and environmental protection requirements.

The Gea CompaX is available in two sizes – the CompaX 700 has a swept volume flow of 708m3/h which, at a maximum rotational speed of 5200rpm, allows the BluQ to provide up to 1300kW of cooling capacity for air conditioning; when used with the larger CompaX 900, with a swept volume of 870m3/h, the BluQ will generate up to 1600kW.

Intuitive and effective – the Gea Omni control panel

Gea Omni control panel features an intuitive, high-definition, multi-touch interface which allows the user to operate their Gea system with maximum efficiency and reliability. To do this, the control unit incorporates all the important elements of a gas compression system both – cooling or heating – from the main components through to individual valves and pumps. This provides users and service technicians with transparency and control over the system – not only on site but also remotely, as the control panel can be accessed and operated by authorized users via a tablet or smartphone. The Gea OmniLink feature allows multiple systems to communicate with each other and data displayed centrally.

In addition to the field test at Wolf ButterBack, Gea BluQ with Gea Compax has proved itself in further industrial applications and has been installed to provide air conditioning. It is in these medium to high demand air conditioning systems that Gea expects to see the greatest market for the technology as they see the benefits of the very good efficiency with full and partial loads, the easy installation and the space-saving design.