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R744 Heating & Cooling Solutions for Thriving Now. And Forever.
Because natural-refrigerant heat pumps are the only way forward.
Welcome to the resiliency crisis. Where a wait-and-see approach is no longer a gamble but a path to ruin.
At Vitalis, we aren't interested in being bystanders. Our 2-in-1 R744 heating and cooling solutions are safe, reliable, efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible. So join us. And future-proof your business or community. For you. For your children. For all of us.
Future-Proof Thermal Energy Systems
Safe
Reliable
Cost-effective
Efficient
Environmentally responsible
Coolshift™ Chiller Package for Breweries, Dairies, and Glycol Cooling Systems
Lower your operating costs and gain more freedom to play.
This energy-efficient solution utilizes an R744 heat pump for your process cooling and is supplied standard with a heat recovery package. Use it to chill your glycol loop for process cooling and temperature control. Reduce your energy and operating costs by recovering the heat from chilling for hot water or steam production. (Replace the need for inefficient stand-alone chillers and boilers.)
Each standard package includes:
Heat recovery solution
SCADA system for seamless integration and continuous optimization
Compatibility with Vitalis Freecovery™ carbon capture system
With the optional Freecovery™ carbon capture integration, you can recover CO2 from your fermentation and store it. It's your own supply of CO2, made accessible. No more worrying about shortages. The Freecovery™ system reduces your operating costs and the overall carbon intensity of your product manufacturing.
Other options include:
Steam generation
Air cooling
Hot water (80°C+)
Water storage on skid (1,500–10,000 L)
Coolshift™ Heat Pump Solutions for Commercial, Industrial, Recreational, or District Energy Applications
Let's build an R744 heat pump that does exactly what you need, in the most efficient way possible.
For cooling or heating loads from 100 kW to MW-scale, Vitalis can supply a solution based on your specific application needs and project requirements. A wide range of configurations is possible thanks to the flexibility of our core Coolshift™ technologies and control systems.
We are the original equipment manufacturer (including vessels and pumps). We are also process experts, which allows for advanced customization.
All Coolshift™ heat pumps include a SCADA system for easy integration with industrial control platforms/building automation systems as well as continual process optimization for ultimate efficiency.
Vitalis-manufactured R744 heat pump used for chilling a large spiral freezer at a food manufacturing facility in Texas.
Applications:
Recreational facility heating & cooling
Community thermal network
District heating loops
Building thermal loops
Industrial heat reclaim and transfer
Geothermal heat pumps
Commercial heat pumps
Commercial refrigeration and cold storage
Industrial cooling and freezing
Blast freezing
Freeze drying
Pumped R744 cooling systems
Pumped R744 freezing systems
Are you an HVAC/R distributor or manufacturers’ representative?
Talk to us about adding R744 heat pump solutions from Vitalis to what you offer.
Upstanders Wanted
Change before you have to.
Why R744 (CO2) heat pumps?
Carbon dioxide (CO2) heat pumps provide efficient heating and refrigeration options in one system. Properly designed and integrated applications can perform with COPs (coefficients of performance) much higher than synthetic-refrigerant systems. For every kilowatt of electrical energy put into the system, a Coolshift™ system can provide up to 12 times the amount of useful energy as heat or cooling.
Plus, R744 heat pumps don’t come with the environmental and health risks associated with conventional systems that use synthetic refrigerants, natural gas, or all-electric heating.
As a refrigerant, R744 offers:
Zero ozone depletion potential
Low global warming potential
No toxicity
No flammability
No corrosiveness
No risk of regulatory bans
Economical recharges
High thermal conductivity
Excellent flow and heat transfer performance
R744 heat pumps can be built and configured for a wide variety of commercial, industrial, and community applications like:
Swimming pool heating
Ice rink climate control
Industrial process chilling and heating (such as in brewery or winery operations)
District energy sharing systems (such as for residential developments or university campuses)
Commercial cold storage
Large residential space heating and cooling
Shared residential hot water
Data center climate control
Blast freezing
Freeze drying
Lower your greenhouse gas footprint
Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much a specific type of gas contributes to the warming of the planet over a given period of time, relative to carbon dioxide. CO2 has a GWP of 1 at all time scales. In contrast, the 20-year GWP of some of the most common hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)—widely used synthetic refrigerants—can range from 323 to 12,000.
High-GWP fluorinated gases (F-gases) like HFCs are released into the atmosphere from leaks in refrigeration systems, the servicing of those systems, and the very process of manufacturing man-made refrigerants. For example, the refrigeration system of a typical supermarket leaks about 25% of its refrigerant charge each year, on average.
When used as a refrigerant, CO2 (R744) enables you to avoid the release of high-GWP emissions that have dramatically greater warming impacts on the climate.
With an R744 heat pump, you can also reduce or eliminate your need for all-electric heaters or natural gas boilers that have higher energy requirements and larger carbon footprints.
Reduce potential health threats posed by synthetic refrigerant emissions
Some newer synthetic refrigerants, such as hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), are marketed as having low GWP values. For instance, HFO-1234yf has a 20-year GWP of 1 (the same as CO2). However, the production of HFOs results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. And when it comes to man-made refrigerants, GWP isn't the only major issue of concern.
In the atmosphere, HFOs can fully degrade to trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) due to photooxidation caused by sunlight. HFCs can also break down, partially, into TFA. That TFA then falls to the surface through precipitation and accumulates in water and soil, including sources of drinking water. TFA doesn't easily break down in the environment and may be impossible to remove once there.
We don't know all the long-term effects of TFA on ecosystems and human health at this time. However, TFA meets the OECD's definition of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which are a group of human-made "forever chemicals" it has designated as posing concerns for the environment and human health (including cancer risks).
Canada's draft report on PFAS chemicals uses the OECD definition of PFAS, which could lead to designating the substances "toxic," following the path of other nations as well as some U.S. states. As Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said, "Only diamonds should be forever, not human-made substances that are polluting our environment."
So the use of HFOs and "low-GWP" HFCs as replacement refrigerants is a major gamble. HFOs and TFA threaten our future.
Should we trust the reassurances of the F-gas industry? It's the same industry responsible for past denials about ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (CFCs and HCFCs) as well as toxic PFAS chemicals.
In the U.S., the EPA has proposed new regulations for PFAS in drinking water. And European countries are proposing extensive PFAS bans.
Let's not trade one crisis for another.
R744 and other natural refrigerants allow us to safely bypass these risks altogether. No gambling required.
Avoid being strangled by increasing regulations
Like CFCs and HCFCs before them, many HFCs are being phased down around the world because of their environmental harm. Several high-GWP HFCs will soon be banned outright in the United States and other countries for most cooling applications. This is how it goes with synthetic refrigerants. See:
CFCs and HCFCs are bad solutions because they deplete the earth's ozone layer. HFCs are bad solutions because they are "super-pollutant" greenhouse gases, hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat. How long until HFOs are concluded to be bad solutions because of the high greenhouse gas emissions from their production and their potential toxicity to the environment and/or human health?
Further HFC bans are likely. And future HFO bans are a distinct possibility. That would be the end of the road for F-gases. In fact, manufacturers of HFCs and HFOs may be causing ozone-depleting CFC emissions as unintended byproducts. So further bans could come sooner than anyone previously imagined.
Companies and communities have opportunities right now to avert future problems by choosing natural refrigerant systems. The alternative could mean having to replace costly F-gas systems prematurely or risk crippling fines or shutdowns.
Simplify and reduce your operating costs
R744 heat pump systems provide the flexibility to combine cooling and heating technologies in a way that saves space and maximizes efficiencies. You can replace multiple pieces of stand-alone equipment—like conventional chillers, boilers, and heaters—with a single R744 heat pump. Using the cooling and heating production of one R744 system empowers you to achieve major cost savings (in both energy and refrigerant recharges).
As the phase-down of F-gases progresses, the cost of recharging a system with synthetic refrigerants is rising exponentially. Even newer synthetics—like HFOs that aren't yet banned—tend to be much more expensive than R744 or other natural refrigerants. With HFC bans and phase-downs already taking hold, companies and communities should expect the prices of synthetic refrigerants to increase with greater frequency.
R744 systems help protect you from rising energy and refrigerant costs.
How does a Vitalis Coolshift™ heat pump work?
(Example shown is for a brewery application.)
Heat is absorbed in the Evaporating HX (heat exchanger), where the CO2 (R744) changes from liquid to vapor.
The CO2 compressor increases the pressure and temperature of the vaporous CO2.
Heat is rejected in the Condensing HX, where the CO2 changes from vapor to liquid before moving into the high-pressure CO2 Receiver.
The Expansion Valve lowers the pressure and temperature of the liquid CO2.
Process cooling is achieved by circulating your heat transfer fluid through the Evaporating HX.
Process heating is achieved by circulating your heat transfer fluid through the Condensing HX.
An optional Steam-Generating Heat Pump can utilize waste heat from the hot HTF loop and increase the temperature of heated water from 90°C to 150°C.
Why Vitalis?
Our mastery of application engineering serves as a foundation for our ability to develop innovative systems that take advantage of carbon dioxide's unique properties. That proficiency is validated in closed-loop Vitalis systems that:
Use CO2 for the extraction of natural ingredients from biomass
Employ CO2 as a heat transfer fluid (HTF)
Utilize CO2 as a natural refrigerant
Recover and recycle CO2 for repeated use
As a vertically integrated original equipment manufacturer (OEM), we manufacture all major components. And we leverage our wealth of R&D, design, engineering, production, and support experience to deliver reliable and responsible solutions across multiple industries.
A clean world is possible, and business will help take us there. We're committing our proven expertise in CO2 handling to the cause of collective resilience and thriving. Vitalis technologies help sustain the lives of companies and communities as we co-create a decarbonized and detoxified future for all.
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