Food Distribution | CO2 Refrigeration
For a Major Food Distribution Operator
Our customer, a major food distribution operator, manages fresh and frozen food distribution zones embedded within existing fulfillment centers to support rapid local delivery.
These cold environments must meet strict temperature requirements, deliver high uptime, and open precisely on scheduled launch dates tied directly to market-facing commitments.
As the major food distribution operator expanded its fresh and frozen food offerings, it standardized on Transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems to align with long-term sustainability goals, refrigerant compliance, and energy efficiency objectives. The customer also required a single, reliable partner capable of installing CO₂ refrigeration systems, all refrigerated cases, and customized control systems consistently across multiple sites and states.
A critical operational requirement was the use of hot gas defrost utilizing waste heat from the CO₂ systems, rather than traditional electric defrost. Hot gas defrost offers clear advantages—lower energy consumption, reduced strain on rapidly growing electrical demand, faster defrost cycles, improved temperature stability, and increased overall system efficiency. However, the controls platform selected for these facilities did not natively support hot gas defrost from Transcritical CO₂ systems.
This created a significant technical gap. General contractors engaged multiple vendors to address the issue, but proposed solutions proved incomplete, unreliable, or incompatible with the customer’s standardization requirements.
Without a viable technical path forward, the refrigeration scope posed a direct risk to performance, consistency, and commissioning timelines.
Compounding the challenge, the customer needed to open six sites across four states on fixed, non-negotiable dates, aligned with scheduled advertising campaigns promoting fast local delivery of fresh food. These immovable launch dates compressed construction schedules by 30–60 days, leaving no margin for redesign, rework, or delays.
With no solution in place and opening dates approaching, they escalated the issue and engaged CoolSys to deliver a solution that could meet both the technical requirements and the accelerated schedule.
CoolSys delivered a fully integrated, end-to-end solution, serving as a single point of accountability across refrigeration installation, controls customization, and program execution.
CoolSys installed the transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems and all refrigerated cases within their fresh and frozen distribution zones. This ensured proper integration between racks, evaporators, piping, and cases while eliminating handoff risk between multiple contractors.
System installation was sequenced to support accelerated construction timelines without compromising quality or safety.
Transcritical CO2 systems installed/started
Evaporator coils hung and piped
Valve stations set and piped
Glass doors set, started and turned over on time
CoolSys engineers customized and reprogrammed the refrigeration control systems to enable hot gas defrost using waste heat from the CO₂ systems.
Compressed refrigerant vapor was safely diverted from the low- and medium-temperature compressor discharge to the evaporators during defrost cycles.
EMS conduit
EMS cabling
Copper pipe installed, welded and pressurized
The CoolSys Program Management Group diligently managed every aspect of the construction effort, coordinating installation teams, energy and controls specialists, and refrigeration and controls OEMs.
Close collaboration with general contractors ensured alignment across equipment procurement, installation sequencing, controls integration, commissioning, and startup.
To meet the customer’s aggressive timelines, CoolSys established a scalable national delivery framework that intentionally incorporated the 30–60 day schedule compression.
This framework standardized installation practices, controls programming, commissioning procedures, and quality controls—allowing CoolSys to execute multiple sites in parallel without sacrificing consistency or performance.
CoolSys’ deep expertise in CO₂ refrigeration, controls engineering, and large-scale deployment ensured these challenges were addressed safely, reliably, and repeatably.
The integrated solution delivered clear operational and business results:
As a direct outcome of this success:
By serving as a single nationwide partner capable of installing transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems, refrigerated cases, and customized controls, CoolSys enabled the food distribution operator to deploy a high-efficiency hot-gas defrost strategy under accelerated construction schedules.
The results were improved energy performance, lower energy consumption, reduced execution risk, and on-time facility openings aligned with market launch commitments—establishing a scalable blueprint for future fresh and frozen distribution centers.
Worth of Work Completed on a Compressed Schedule
EMS labor
Refrigeration labor
Subcontract work
Ready to deploy high-efficiency refrigeration systems across multiple sites without missing critical launch dates? Partner with CoolSys to simplify execution, reduce risk and deliver consistent results nationwide.
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