Energy Recovery and Epta Win Refrigeration Innovation of the Year at RAC Cooling Industry Awards 2023

Energy Recovery (NASDAQ: ERII) and Epta Group (Epta) were together awarded Refrigeration Innovation of the Year for the XTE (Extra Transcritical Efficiency), Epta’s next-generation commercial CO₂ refrigeration system. The award for Refrigeration Innovation of the Year recognizes systems, products, or processes that utilize new technology to provide definitive innovations to refrigeration. The innovative and patent pending XTE solution utilizes the energy savings and efficiency benefits of the PX G1300^TM and packages them into a complete next-generation refrigeration system.

“We are honored to accept this prestigious recognition from the RAC Cooling Industry Awards,” said Daniele Mazzola, Technical Marketing Manager at Epta Group. “Our goal has always been to propose solutions that support our customers in their green transitions. We believe that our collaboration with Energy Recovery is a further step in bringing the best energy saving technology to the refrigeration market.”

The application of Energy Recovery’s trusted pressure exchanger (PX) technology, which revolutionized the desalination industry after its launch over 30 years ago, significantly improves the efficient operation of the transcritical CO₂ plant at any latitude.

That is possible as the whole system runs without synthetic or inflammable coolants and without using water, taking advantage of the CO₂ in the transcritical system as the cooling fluid. Specifically for this purpose, the PX G1300 has been suitably modified, inserted in the Epta ETE (Extreme Temperature Efficiency) system instead of the compressor and instructed to transfer the energy from the high-pressure fluid stream to the low-pressure one via rotating flow channels.

Energy Recovery’s PX G1300 was also given the honor of Highly Commended in the Refrigeration Product of the Year – Components or Peripherals category.

Installations of the PX G1300 at several North American and European supermarkets have demonstrated efficiency improvements over 30% above +40°C (104°F) compared with a traditional transcritical system. The XTE mechanism, thanks to the PX G1300, not only reduces consumption peaks during warm months, but also offers significant benefits in cold months, during which the XTE system starts running when temperatures are +10°C (50°F).