Vilter unveils first low-charge packaged system at IIAR

Vilter Manufacturing unveiled the Modular Rooftop Unit (MRU), the company’s first ammonia/CO₂ packaged system for industrial applications, at the IIAR 2018 Natural Refrigeration Conference & Expo this week

The plug-and-play MRU is one of a slew of low-charge ammonia systems featured at the IIAR Conference – a sign of the mounting interest in this technology in the industrial sector.

Vilter, a Cudahy, Wis.-based subsidiary of Emerson, will start taking orders for the MRU later this year and begin shipping it by the end of the year, said Antonio De Lourdes, senior project engineer for Vilter.

The MRU contains two refrigeration lines so that “if you lose one line, you still have half the capacity,” said De Lourdes. Each line uses less than 100 lbs of ammonia. 

Vilter provides the single-screw ammonia compressors and semi-hermetic CO₂ reciprocating compressor in the MRU, which also includes heat exchangers from Colmac Coil.

De Lourdes stressed that the MRU, which ranges in capacity from 25 to 80 TR, offers the flexibility of a modular system. “You could buy the total system, which includes the evaporators, or you could hang the evaporators [in storage areas],” he said. 

Facilities that are expanding but have no additional space in the engine room, can leverage their existing ammonia capabilities and use only the CO₂ part of the MRU to gain more capacity, he added.