Innovative Refrigeration Systems said it completed a two-stage cascade refrigeration system for a tube ice maker in Pennsylvania.

The company said the project is unique because the tube ice makers were specifically designed to work with CO₂ as the refrigerant, making them environmentally friendly.

Each ice maker is capable of producing 60 tons per day of tube ice. According to the Innovative Refrigeration project manager, “the project posed some exciting engineering, design, and control challenges due to the properties of CO₂.”

Innovative said the project highlighted its commitment to environmental sustainability and its leadership in the engineering, design, and construction of industrial CO₂ cascade refrigeration systems. CO₂ is a naturally occurring refrigerant that has no ozone depletion potential and is a green refrigerant due to its extremely low Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 1. This is in contrast to most Freons, which have a GWP greater than 3000.