Efficient manufacturing and sparkling indulgence

Few in Germany are unfamiliar with the famous sparkling wine Rotkäppchen-Sekt. With a market share of 55.4 per cent, Rotkäppchen-Mumm is the largest producer of sparkling wine in Germany. Its product range does not consist exclusively of sparkling wine, spirits and wine, however, as it also features alcohol-free alternatives such as Rotkäppchen Alkoholfrei and Mumm Dry Jahrgang Alkoholfrei. Manufacturing in Eltville am Rhein, Rotkäppchen-Mumm recently overcame the challenge of making its production process not only efficient and reliable, but also reducing the noise levels. The production facility of the beverage manufacturer is directly adjacent to the banks of the river and in the historic old town of the popular travel destination situated around 13 km west of Wiesbaden, the capital of the federal state of Hesse. Rotkäppchen-Mumm did not want residents and visitors to be bothered by unnecessary noise emissions. As such, it needed to find an efficient cold water system for its vacuum distillation process that could deliver the necessary refrigeration capacity and lower the sound level at the same time.

A job for specialists

Rotkäppchen-Mumm relied on the expertise and experience of two specialists to design the system: Stulz GmbH, one of the world’s leading system suppliers of air-conditioning technology, and BITZER, the world’s largest independent manufacturer of refrigeration compressors. The outstanding cooperation between everyone involved soon produced the optimum solution: a CyberCool-2 liquid chiller from Stulz with two BITZER CSH screw compressors optimised for the refrigerant R134a and a cooling capacity of 860 kW is now being used to manufacture alcohol-free products. As a result, Rotkäppchen-Mumm possesses a highly efficient, reliable system that also runs quietly and can be operated extremely economically – a win-win situation for residents and the company.

One system with multiple benefits

Stulz built and tested the refrigeration system in its factory in Hamburg. The Axi-Top fan diffuser attachments on the liquid chiller are exceptionally quiet and maximise efficiency at the same time. Additionally, the deliberately oversized heat exchangers in the CyberCool 2 allow the system to operate at lower fan speeds, which also reduces the sound level. Other benefits of the oversized components are the longer service life and improved energy efficiency of the system which can meet approximately 70 per cent of the production capacity with just one refrigerant circuit.

The installed system consists of two redundant refrigerant circuits, each of which is fitted with a semi-hermetic CSH95 compact screw compressor from BITZER. The refrigeration and air-conditioning technology specialist designed this series especially for energy-efficient full- and part-load operation as well as for a variety of refrigerants. Another hallmark of the compressors is that they are designed to be exceptionally robust and reliable. This means that with CSH compressors from BITZER, operators can use liquid chillers extremely economically and comply with even the strictest international efficiency standards with ease. And that pays off for users.