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by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Wednesday, 28 January 2009
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MEP Middle East talks to Aftab Khan, managing director, Building Systems & Services Carrier Middle East, on the company's future projects and its re-entry into the district cooling market.
What is Carrier's position in the market?
Carrier is one of the leading brands in the market, with an assimilated share of about 35% in the Middle East.
We have a very broad range of products, starting with residential products such as room AC, a window unit, to a machine that we will be introducing next quarter of 2,500 tonnes. It is a very wide range of products which caters for every sector of the market.
The Middle East is a unique market with strong growth prospects. We have confidence in the Middle East markets delivering on their commitments.
What do you see for the future of Carrier?
From the products side we will be bringing new products to the market with the new environmentally responsible refrigerants, which are being studied and developed right now. We are starting a new area of business, which is sustainable construction and we are looking at the controls market.
Carrier has all these capabilities available in house. We are looking at energy management business and also we are looking at rental cooling business. So there is a wide horizon and many years of opportunity which will enable us to maintain our robust growth in the future.
Carrier has extensive plans for this market. These include technology transfers to our manufacturing facility in Middle East, the launch of environmentally sustainable HVAC solutions from the global product slate and the re-entry into district cooling with environmentally responsible products.
Carrier is also looking into new opportunities like rental cooling, system solutions with controls, energy management and sustainable construction offer new market space for growth.
How important do you thing green thinking is in the industry?
Extremely important, Carrier has been a very responsible company is this area. We have been working on green refrigerants from 2001 and we have introduced green refrigerants such as the R134A which is environmentally responsible.
Responsible is the word that I will use, because nothing is friendly in refrigerants. Our chillers today are with the new refrigerants and our future products which will be introduced into this area will help the environment and the sustainability.
We think it's very important we would like to play a leading role in this area.
Our new product, the 19XRD, the new district cooling machine is a very high efficiency product so all of our new products are environmentally responsible with a lesser footprint, less noise and more energy efficiency.
Its not one thing, many things are required and then you have to have the right controls, it's a wide horizon and I think Carrier is leading in all these areas. Carrier has acquired companies in the US who are in the sustainability business and that expertise is now in house and available within Carrier.
Growing concerns about global warming and greenhouse gases have triggered major technological advances in air conditioning.
Since the mid-80s, commercial air conditioning systems have undergone a transition from using ozone depleting compounds, including chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) to low and non-ozone depleting compounds such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Because of their excellent refrigerant properties, CFCs were used in large chillers while HCFCs were used in smaller room and roof-top air conditioners.
Today, blends including R-407C and R-410A have been introduced to replace HCFC-22 in small machines and hydrocarbons are used in some new equipment.
Worldwide, several countries have stopped the production and subsequent use of non-ozone friendly refrigerants and air conditioning equipment that uses them.
It's a matter of time before laws in the Middle East get aligned with international legislations such as the Montreal Protocol that restrict the use of non-ozone friendly refrigerants.
While some countries in the region have already initiated laws phasing out the use of refrigerants that damage the Earth's ozone layer, others are expected to gradually follow suit.
Our own building in the UAE which is in construction now for our UAE office is going to be LEED platinum and this building will hopefully be constructed by the end of 2009.
What has prompted the move into district cooling?
We have everything to gain when it comes to district cooling because Carrier is reentering that segment of the market. We were a major player in the past but because of the limited market for ten years we were absent. For us we have to gain everything because we have not been there. The market is huge.
With our existing range of centrifugal machines, and extension to higher capacities with the new Evergreen 19XRD, we expect to play a more prominent role in this segment going forward.
What challenges do you see in this sector?
I think the challenges are the scarcity of water in the UAE, we have had to find different solutions. Seawater is a solution and well water is a solution. But these are the challenges for all companies in the industry and we have to find alternative sources of water.
Our products at Carrier are comfortable with seawater and we have all the experience and necessary products to deal with that.
The size of the projects are huge in the past district cooling plants used to be maximum 50,000 TR but now you are talking about much bigger projects. The size of the projects is the very big change.
The requirements of energy efficient products is a key thing today, al these district cooling plants require energy and we have to have energy efficiency products.
You have to look at the consumption, the footprint, the material you use, the recycling requirement of water, the quality of water, the indoor air quality - it's a very wide list of requirements to serve this segment of the market.
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