COMPRESSORS
Inside the compressor: evolution
Being the heart of refrigeration, the compressor is in a constant state of evolution, transforming the industry, as Marek Zgliczynski, Peter Buksar and Jozef Sedliak of Embraco explain in this first of a two-part in-depth look at compressors.
F Marek Zgliczynski.
rom the comfort of having fresh food at home to the preservation of samples for science purposes, passing by the transportation of food and so many
other situations, refrigeration has provided advancement, convenience and quality of life to society. Those who work in this sector can agree that a big part of it has only been possible thanks to a mechanical device named hermetic compressor. There are other forms of generating cold, but the systems powered by compressors are the most common, and refrigeration only got popular after this device got commercially viable, between the 1930s and 40s. Some say it is the heart of refrigeration, which is appropriate, since it pumps the refrigerant through the system.
There has been a great amount of technology and Peter Buksar.
science involved in developing compressors. “The first one had an enormous size with the cooling capacity of a sub-mini we have today”, says Zgliczynski, Nidec Global Appliance Research and development (R&D) director. “In the last 20 years especially, it has gone through a revolution”, says Peter Buksar, Nidec Global Appliance R&D senior leader – technical support, also focused on the Embraco portfolio. At first, the main concern was reliability, but with time other themes have risen up, prompted by different reasons: governmental regulations and sustainability, competitiveness and customer satisfaction. The main lines of change have gone into four directions: energy efficiency, change in refrigerants, size reduction and better acoustic perception.
Jozef Sedliak.
Energy efficiency According to the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), refrigeration and air conditioning together respond
30 May 2020
for 17% of the electricity consumption in the world. After reliability, the strongest wave of evolution in compressors has been energy efficiency, meaning it provides the greatest amount of cooling with the least possible energy consumption. It is measured by the Coefficient of Performance (COP), which is the cooling effect divided by the energy you use to create this cooling effect. “Embraco, now part of Nidec Global Appliance, was a
pioneer in bringing energy efficiency into commercial refrigeration with its NEK product family, in Slovakia. And then further models, such as NJ and NT were all coming hand in hand with improvement of efficiency and acoustics”, says Mr Buksar. The evolution in this aspect has been big. “An NE compressor had a COP of 1.2 twenty years ago. Today, you can have an EMC series, much smaller, doing the same job, with a COP of 1.9, which means 60% more energy efficiency”, he explains. “In household refrigeration, it started a bit earlier, with the equipment being labeled as a class A, class B and so on”, adds the engineer. The EM, launched in 1982 for household refrigeration, has a history of COP improvements: from 1,19 when launched to 1,96 in 2015. “Thanks to other features of the refrigerator, such
as insulation and the sealing of the doors, the overall gain in the final cabinet, in household refrigeration, is around three times less energy consumption in 20 years”, contributes Mr Zgliczynski. “We calculate that from the compressor evolution alone we have reduced 30% to 40% of the energy consumption in this period”, resumes Mr Buksar.
Size reduction Along with energy efficiency, came size reduction, motivated by competitive reasons and also customer
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