In conversation with Mr. Rob de Bruyn, Managing Director, BITZER Refrigeration Asia Pte Limited.
The compressor is the heart of any refrigeration or air conditioning system. What are the technological advancements Indian experienced in this field? How cost effective they are?
The awareness levels of customers in India towards energy efficiency are very high and this has encouraged premium Compressor manufacturers to further improve the product offering. In the past 12 months BITZER has introduced compressors with integrated inverters that offer maximum power saving to customers. The inverters are offered both with bare compressors and in Air Cooled Condensing Unit configurations. The inverters modulate the speed of the compressors to precisely match the load requirement and offer highest levels of energy savings possible. Since the inverters are suction gas cooled, there is no de-rating in the performance on account of high ambient temperatures prevailing in many parts of the country. Some of the products being offered by BITZER include:
1) CSVH range of Compact Screw Compressors with integrated frequency inverter optimized for liquid chiller and heat pump applications.
2) EcolineVarispeed range of semi-hermetic reciprocating compressors with integrated frequency inverter optimized for both air conditioning and refrigeration applications
3) Ecostar range of Air Cooled Condensing Units with inverter integrated on the compressor
Though these compressors come at a modest premium to standard compressors, the payback periods are very small which more than makes up for the higher initial cost.
Bitzer is a leading manufacturer of refrigerant compressors. Tell us what makes you tick in a highly competitive segment?
BITZER products are being imported into India for over 40 years now and BITZER enjoys a very high brand recall with the customers. The BITZER products are known for their very high reliability which is very important for end users and offer the highest efficiency in their class. In the past few years, BITZER India has rapidly expanded its Green Point Service Network with service centres at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore & Kolkata making us the only compressor manufacturer with pan India service support capabilities. The service centres have also been extensively used for imparting technical training to both our partners & end users.
Would you like to share with our readers some of the feedback that your company gets from the users of your products?
We always share with pride the story of an ice cream manufacturer in Kolhapur, Maharashtra who has been using our Open Type Reciprocating Compressors for the past 37 years without any breakdown. When he met our service team in a chance encounter, he did not allow them to have food outside and instead insisted that he hosts them for lunch as a mark of his respect to the company and its products. We have Millions of such cases of very positive feedbacks from customers across the globe.
Are there any special achievements by your company that you can boast of in the recent past?
BITZER has received the major refrigeration industry accolade, the Refrigeration Product of the Year Award at the recently held 2014 ACR News Awards. The highly acclaimed BITZER Ecoline reciprocating compressor was selected as the winner in its category by an independent panel of industry experts.
Is there any technological advancement in your area of business?
The awareness levels of customers in India towards energy efficiency are very high and this has encouraged premium Compressor manufacturers to further improve the product offering. In the past 12 months BITZER has introduced compressors with integrated inverters that offer maximum power saving to customers. The inverters are offered both with bare compressors and in Air Cooled Condensing Unit configurations. The inverters modulate the speed of the compressors to precisely match the load requirement and offer highest levels of energy savings possible. Since the inverters are suction gas cooled, there is no de-rating in the performance on account of high ambient temperatures prevailing in many parts of the country
Do you think Indian cold chain can be compared with its international counterpart? What is actually lacking behind this?
The Cold Chain infrastructure in India is being rapidly upgraded with the assistance of very generous grants from the Government of India through its carious arms like National Horticulture Board etc. The entrepreneurs who are investing in the cold chains are opting for energy efficient compressors that use environmentally friendly refrigerants and are no longer being driven only by the initial cost of the project. The very high success rate enjoyed by BITZER with its Added Value Products Like Screw Compressor Racks, Screw Condensing Units & Reciprocating Compressor Racks to name a few are testimony to this fact. In this sense Indian cold chains are at par with international counterparts.
The next step in the evolution process would be adaptation of natural refrigerants like CO2 that offer much higher efficiency than the existing systems but this is some time away from Indian perspective. In Europe, USA, Australia etc CO2 based refrigeration systems have been deployed extensively.
