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R1234ze chiller supplies Danfoss-backed hotel

DENMARK: The new 190-room Alsik hotel, one of the largest in Denmark, incorporates a 900kW water-cooled Clint liquid chiller using Turbocor compressors running on low GWP HFO refrigerant R1234ze. 

The four-star hotel in Sonderborg, southern Denmark, has been built to reach 76% CO₂-neutrality, helped by being supplied with power from 380m² of PV panels from local green district heating.

As the largest four-star hotel in the German-Danish border region, and now Sonderborg’s latest prominent landmark, the Alsik has been constructed in the former industrial port area, on the banks of the Alssund strait and the Flensburg Fjord.

The 70m high building of 24,800m² and 19 floors was funded by the Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation, owner of the Danfoss Group, together with the Danish pension company PFA. 

The air conditioning system works with a Clint Turboline water-cooled liquid chiller for dry-cooler operation from Italian manufacturer GI Industrial Holding. This high energy efficient unit features three Turbocor magnetic-levitation oil-free compressors and is specifically designed to operate with R1234ze.

Danfoss has supplied the hotel’s energy-efficient technology. Intelligent control of all engineering plants, low energy cooling, reuse of surplus heat and reduced flow temperatures are just examples of what Danfoss does to help minimise Alsik’s energy use and resulting environmental impact.

“In the construction of Alsik, Danfoss products are integrated as far as possible. The sustainable solutions are incorporated intelligently, so that the short-term focus does not harm the long term –and vice versa,” said John Knudsen, project director for the Bitten and Mads Clausen’s Foundation.

“For this specific project in Denmark, we proposed Turbocor and our Turboline chiller to reach the highest efficiency and the lowest GWP available in the market,” said Francesco Fadigà, GI Industrial Holding’s technical director.

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