Overview

Lillooet in British Columbia (BC) is a small community of around 2,500 residents, situated four hours north of Vancouver. It is home to the Lillooet Recreation, Education, & Cultural Centre – a multipurpose facility that also includes a seasonal NHL-sized ice arena.

The Rec center’s refrigeration plant had been operational for over two decades and was due for a life cycle replacement. To get funding for this upgrade, the District applied for a grant from the ‘Investing in Canada Infrastructure – Rural and Northern Communities’ program in January 2019.

In July the following year (2020), the District received formal notification from the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs that the application had been approved. CIMCO was then formally awarded the contract after successfully proposing a retrofit with CO₂. Construction started in April 2021 and the system went live in September 2021.

The Solution

CIMCO supplied and installed a packaged transcritical CO₂ system with a nominal refrigeration capacity of 71 TR (250 kW), complete with heat reclaim.

The team was able to reuse the existing plant room and despite the compact space, retrofitting with CO₂ was an easy swap, according to Rob Martin, Refrigeration Engineer at CIMCO Refrigeration, who managed the project.

Previously, the refrigeration plant comprised two large compressors. However, the new CO₂ plant has four smaller compressors instead. This allows the facility to keep operating even in the event of a compressor failure – a huge plus for the end-user who is remote and often has to wait a long time for service.

The new CO₂ plant has been operational for a season now without any major issues.

Why CO₂?

In the province of BC, authorities have recently increased the safety requirements for refrigeration systems using ammonia, which can be difficult for smaller facilities to implement. In addition, ammonia systems with over 50 kW power input require 24-hour operator supervision – not only a costly endeavor but also a challenging one in small towns like Lillooet where workers, especially those with suitable refrigeration skills, are scarce.

As CO₂ (R744) is classed as safety class A1 – meaning it is a low toxicity, non-flammable refrigerant – it is only subject to these additional requirements once the system exceeds 200 kW. This is one of the key reasons why CO₂ was a good choice for the Lillooet Rec center with only 120 kW installed power. Opting for CO₂ allowed the facility to side-step the burden of additional safety requirements.