Two projects in Geneva for the Bracco Group

Background

Bracco is an international Group active in the healthcare sector and a leader in diagnostic imaging. It has around 3420 employees and annual total consolidated revenues of around 1,29 billion euros, 86% of which from international sales. In 2019, Bracco started the Hexagon project, an investment of 60 million euros, for the construction of a new multifunctional building in Geneva which will be responsible for the production and marketing of its flagship product.

Purposes

For the cooling system of the new building, the designer – Jacobs Italia – wanted the best in terms of efficiency, compactness and silence available on the market. So they contacted Geoclima to develop two water-cooled chillers.

Project 1

Geoclima has designed two water-cooled Turbomisers with oil-free centrifugal compressors, for an overall cooling capacity of 1300 kW (370 RT). The chillers are designed to use the HFO-1234ze, the greenest refrigerant in the world (GWP <1), and are able to guarantee EER levels of 5.35 (W/W)*.

Developments

The two units supplied for the Hexagon project impressed so favorably for performance and reliability that the client decided to commission Geoclima to also replace two old competitor units in another building, in addition to the development of a management system (Building Automation System) for the rotation and efficiency of the units.

Project 2

For the second building, Geoclima has developed two units:

• a 438 kW (125 RT) air-cooled Turbomiser with oil-free centrifugal compressors and an EER of 3.69 (W/W)**;
• a 432 kW (123 RT) air-cooled G-Range with screw compressors for very efficient heat recovery.

Also for these chillers, it was chosen to use the HFO-1234ze to increase energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact.

*Cooling kW/RT = 0.66 – Cooling EER BTU/Wh = 18.25
**Cooling kW/RT = 0.95 – Cooling EER BTU/Wh = 12.59