With the advent of sustainable development, global trends are focusing on various techniques to encourage energy efficiency, and even the Indian hospitality sector is looking at ways to improve its sustainability by using modern refrigeration systems By Archana Sharma
Though India is ranked first in the world for milk production, second in fruits and vegetables production, the most important segment for maintaining this growth and reducing food wastage, the refrigeration sector in India is still lagging behind. According to M Srinivas Reddy, general manager, business development, AC & R products, Blue Star, “The refrigeration industry, irrespective of user sectors, is in the nascent stages in our country compared to any developing economy and is just evolving. The country is faced with a serious challenge on account of food wastage, primarily due to lack of end-to-end cold chain infrastructure, even though, India is one of the largest producers and biggest consumers of food.” He believes that the adoption level in sectors like pharma and hospitality is encouraging. “Star-category hotels and QSR chains are leading the way owing to their quality standards and compliances, however, it may take a long time to reach 100 per cent adoption given the challenge in the lower-end of the segment,” he adds.
Market requirements
The refrigeration industry in India is relatively small and is a niche market in comparison to other countries. However, Reddy believes that since there is much awareness being built around energy savings in all walks of life, the hospitality sector is no different. “With energy being the most important component of Operating Expenses (OPEX), the clientele looks out for energy efficient technologies coupled with availability of robust installation and service back-up. And with all things being equal, the one with higher energy saver would be the winner,” he mentions.
Usually, the size and scale of operations decides the level and type of refrigeration systems to be deployed in the hospitality sector, be it a hotel or a QSR or dine-in restaurant. The key considerations are nature, temperature and duration of product being stored. Apart from walk-in-cold rooms and walk-in-freezers, other plug and play commercial refrigeration products like reach-ins, refrigerated prep tables, under counters, display cases, beer dispensers, dual-temp cases, blast coolers/ freezers, ice cubers, mini bars, etc are used in the hospitality sector. As per Reddy, “To begin with, the most critical factor is understanding specific customer needs, proper heat load estimation, system design and selection, a well-balanced installation design as per site feasibility, apart from periodic maintenance. A rightly designed system, if installed badly, may fail to deliver the optimum capacities. Even a seemingly simple thing like number of bends in copper line between condenser and evaporator makes a lot of difference to energy consumption and trouble-free performance. The usage pattern is also an important factor.”
Industry trends
The global refrigeration industry has been undergoing several changes for several years now. In particular, the global environmental impact of some refrigerants, such as the ozone depletion, global warming and the greenhouse effect, has changed the industry considerably. In an endeavour to retain a competitive edge, several companies including the hospitality sector are adopting best practices in pursuit of energy conservation and energy cost reduction. “We have recently launched water coolers with in-built purification systems for C & C segments like hospitality where there is a greater need for integrated cooling and purification of water at the point of use. This unique product has in-built purification system to ensure delivery of treated cold water and it is available with UV or RO option to suit respective purification needs.” states Reddy. Blue Star offers modular walk-in cold rooms and freezer rooms, chest type deep freezers, bottle coolers, water coolers, bottled water dispensers and ice cubers.
The increased focus on reducing the use of refrigerants with an environmental impact has spread, so that it covers almost all refrigerants today, and is mainly focused on synthetic refrigerants like CFC, HCFC, HFC and HFO. However, Reddy believes that the basic refrigeration technology would remain the same. “But we can expect to see lot of developments in heat exchangers, remote controlling, temperature recording and tracking, precision controls, eco-friendly thermal insulation, HACCP compliances, etc as part of overall demand for higher standards in energy efficiency. The regulatory compliances in the form of Food Safety and Standards Act would force stakeholders to adopt quality standards,” he adds.
Talking about challenges, Reddy says, “Currently, there is no energy labelling for commercial refrigeration systems like in case of air conditioners. It may be a matter of time before the government begins to think about energy labelling for commercial refrigeration systems as well. Another challenge that the industry has to deal with is the shortage of skilled refrigeration technicians.”
As per Reddy, the Indian hospitality sector is at the tipping point of growth, owing to several macro-economic factors. “The QSR sector is growing at rapid pace with several MNCs and Indian chains announcing their expansion plans for the next three-five years. Therefore, going forward, there will be a lot of pressure on the hospitality industry to continue to seek ways to reduce the OPEX to stay competitive,” he says. He also believes that customers will increasingly seek ‘Cost of Ownership’ as the benchmark to evaluate options. “It is a holistic way of looking at the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and OPEX on a product life cycle basis. In this context, the reliability of design, quality standards in installations, post-sales service assurance and post-warranty costs coupled with company’s ability to deliver on-time service during product life cycle are going to weight critically in the customer’s mind,” he states. Reddy believes that the refrigeration industry has changed a lot during the last years, however there is still a major potential to improve on efficiency and sustainability.