Danfoss has been recognized by a panel of ASHRAE members in the 2017 AHR Expo Innovation Awards program. Danfoss Enterprise Services and Danfoss CTM multi-ejector both won top honors in the building automation and refrigeration categories, respectively. In the green building category, the Danfoss Turbocor® TG compressor was named an honorable mention.

As the winner in the award competition’s building automation category, Danfoss Enterprise Services is a cloud-based service delivery platform tailored to supermarket and other food-retail applications that collects a range of data points from connected devices to provide insight on several aspects of HVACR operations, energy management and usage, benchmarking, and food safety.

Danfoss Enterprise Services provides real-time, actionable information to monitor equipment alarms, compressor status, leak detection, food temperatures, and refrigerant levels. The company said other services are also available for energy baselining and benchmarking usage, demand response, and remote assist to promote maximized energy efficiency and savings, while helping to troubleshoot and adjust overall HVACR system functions. 

An electrically controlled multi-ejector designed specifically for the warm climate operation of transcritical CO2 systems in commercial refrigeration applications, the Danfoss CTM ejector was named the winner in the award competition’s refrigeration category.

Capable of recovering energy while controlling the high pressure of the transcritical application, the Danfoss CTM ejector aims to deliver value to the application through improvements in energy efficiency — 20% or more are achievable in the warmest ambient conditions. This is accomplished by employing energy recovered from the gas cooler and transferring it to increase the pressure of gas being compressed by parallel compressors, thus reducing overall compressor load.

According to Danfoss, the product is the first commercially viable solution engineered to overcome energy penalties associated with operating transcritical CO2 systems in high ambient temperatures. Also, officials said the CTM ejector eliminates the need for redundant, cascade refrigeration systems, making transcritical CO2 systems more efficient than HFC systems in any climate zone.

As an honorable mention in the program’s green building category, Danfoss Turbocor® TG compressors are oil-free, variable speed, magnetic bearing centrifugal compressors that operate with refrigerants that have an extremely low global warming potential.

Designed for air- and water-cooled chillers ranging from 40 to 500+ tons when manifolded and/or used in multiple circuits, the Danfoss Turbocor® TG compressor series aims to provide optimum energy efficiency at full- and part-loads in a compact and lightweight footprint. Originally introduced with environmentally-friendly HFO1234ze, the TG series includes compressor capacities ranging from 40 to 150 tons and also accommodates new refrigerant blends, allowing customers to meet their exact flammability and capacity requirements while still providing a reduced GWP solution.

The annual awards competition honors the inventive and original products, systems, and technologies showcased at each year’s AHR Expo (International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition) in the categories of building automation, cooling, green building, heating, indoor air quality, plumbing, refrigeration, software, tools and instruments, and ventilation.

Winners were selected by a panel of third-party ASHRAE member judges who evaluated all award entries based on innovative design, creativity, application, value, and market impact.

Award winners will be recognized in a formal ceremony during the 2017 AHR Expo, which takes place January 30-February 1, 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.