Toronto, ON — The NHL will be getting its first hockey area that will feature a carbon dioxide (CO2) refrigeration system. The Columbus Blue Jackets’ Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio will receive the new system. And even better, a Canadian company, Cimco Refrigeration, will be doing the installation.
“Having a future-proof, efficient, sustainable refrigeration installation that will last for the next 30 years is very important to us. With ever-changing regulations in the industry, we were not interested in having to trouble ourselves with having to find another solution in the coming years. CO2 has had a longstanding reputation in Europe for decades, and we are excited to be the first NHL team to implement a CO2 plant partnering with Cimco,” said Derek Smith, general manager at Nationwide Arena.
The Canadian Cimco will upgrade the arena’s HFC-22 (R22) system by installing two 200 TR (703 kW) packaged trans-critical CO2 systems with full redundancy. “We wanted to provide Nationwide with a long-term solution,” explained Brad Wilkins, US recreation project team lead at Cimco Refrigeration. “With the current state of synthetic refrigerant blends, you cannot make long-term promises.”
The company also details how CO2 stands out in performance when providing high-quality ice. The CO2 solution provides a very fast way to reduce the ice temperature to meet the performance requirements when needed.
Cimco also stated on its website that it had installed more than 100 CO2 arena systems since 2012. “After extensive research in a solution for our 22-year-old plant, we determined the smartest choice was a CO2 solution that CIMCO proposed,” said Smith.
The project will start in May 2023 and is expected to be completed by September 2023.