REFRIGERATION / FRUIT AND VEGETABLE STORAGES

The company headquarters in Dienerstrasse in the heart of the Bavarian capital is home to the fine world of delicatessen, including a top-quality gourmet restaurant: The well-chilled service counters on the ground floor offer the finest fish, cheese, sausage, cold meat and wine specialties from all over the world. Around three million customers flock to the much acclaimed business every year. The installed refrigeration technology was getting on in years and has now been replaced on the fly by a transcritical CO2 refrigeration system with 16 Küba brand Kelvion evaporators. 

“All standard applications because it is only packaged goods for day-to-day requirements that are stored here. The challenge in terms of refrigeration technology was, rather, to connect the around 80 refrigerated counters in the sales area as well as a server room to the centralized refrigeration system”, says refrigeration engineer and refrigeration/air conditioning and system technology technician Christian Kraus from K.E.D. Kälte- und Klimatechnik GmbH, which very deliberately installed Küba SPB standard air coolers from Kelvion with operating pressures of up to 60 bar. “Kelvion is the technological market leader with the Küba product brand. The air coolers are simply awesome, with high quality and absolute reliability”, says Kraus, emphasizing that: “In the end, you know it will work perfectly. You can rely on it.”

The promise of quality is one thing, while the choice of the refrigerant was vital for the decision of those responsible at Dallmayr to have the refrigeration system planned by K.E.D. installed. “CO2 is the only environmentally friendly refrigerant with a GWP value of 1. The environmental aspect was very important to Dallmayr in this regard”, says Kraus, who laid a total of 1.7 kilometers of new piping to connect all the refrigerated counters on the premises. The refrigerated counters were replaced step-by-step by the general contractor Schweizer-Ladenbau and then connected to the new refrigeration plant accordingly. This made it possible to carry out the work on the fly without having to restrict sales in the delicatessen business for even a single day.
 

The old refrigeration plant operated with the refrigerants R134 and R404A in the deep freeze segment. “This could no longer be considered for ecological reasons. The investment required for a CO2 installation is much higher, of course. This has to be seen in relative terms, however, as the price of refrigerants will soar in the future. With CO2, we will be on the safe side for the next 20 years. The only environmentally friendly alternative would have been a propane gas installation. In view of the inner city location, this could not be considered, however“, says Kraus. Some of the standard air coolers are equipped with electrical defrosting and some with air off cycle defrost. The housing is completely sealed. Hinged drip trays are not used. Even the air cooler for the server room is an SPB standard model from Kelvion - but is fitted with a finned tube heater so that the humidity can be regulated. 

K.E.D. installed the new refrigeration plant in just eleven weeks, despite having to struggle for every centimeter. “Space is the one commodity that is scarce at the Dallmayr headquarters. So we had to make sure we got the piping laid accordingly and that there was sufficient space for the refrigeration system in the basement next to the old installation until the old technology could be removed”, explains Kraus. The condenser was installed on a rooftop on the first floor.

The origins of Dallmayr can be traced back to the year 1700. In 2015, the group turned over around €900 million, is divided into four different divisions and has around 3,900 employees worldwide – with 350 of these working at the company’s headquarters. Dallmayr is a Bavarian institution. “So we were, of course, delighted to get the contract. – Especially as my father had already planned a refrigeration plant for the headquarters some 30 years ago, but did not get the chance to implement it”, comments Christian Kraus.

The customers of K.E.D. Kälte- und Klimatechnik GmbH, based in Bischofsmais, mainly include large chain stores like Penny and Rewe, as well as butcheries, bakeries, restaurants and the pharmaceutical industry. The company was founded in 2005 and has grown constantly since then. Sales doubled to €10 million in the first five years alone. The company now has 80 employees - including 18 field service engineers and 4 refrigeration engineers to develop individual and customized refrigeration systems.