Between 2009 and 2013, transcritical CO2 technology was still considered a niche. For Enex, however, it was a period of extraordinary growth: we did not try to convince the masses, but we focused methodically on the few customers who believed in the natural future, continuously refining the technique.

In 2009 the Finnish group Huurre took a minority stake in Enex. The winds of capital were finally blowing in our sails. This operation opened the doors to Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. In just a few months, turnover grew significantly and our reputation as an “innovation boutique” was consolidated with installations in prestigious sites, such as the Harrods department store in London.

While large industrial groups still looked at CO2 with caution or through exploratory acquisitions (Dover group took over Advansor and Carrier took over Green&Cool), Enex responded with bespoke engineering and an unwavering conviction.

But our greatest leap didn’t come from a boardroom; it came from a beautiful mistake.

The “ejector” was a “mythological” object in refrigeration, conceived in France around 1850 to use the energy of the expansion to reduce the work of the compressors, was a lifeless piece of metal, until SINTEF in Trondheim blew the dust off its blueprints around 2010.

At Enex, we were testing it on a heat pump when things went wrong. It wasn’t performing as calculated, but as we stared at the stubborn device, an intuition struck like lightning: it was failing at its intended purpose, but it was acting as a magnificent, energy-free “liquid pump.”

The situation begged a question: “What if we used it to recirculate refrigerant in evaporators?”. Thus, the concept of the supercharged (or semi-flooded) evaporator was born.

As a result, in the biting frost of Lahti, Finland, in 2010, this accidental discovery boosted plant efficiency by a staggering 20-25%. It was a technological earthquake, protected by patents and that has changed the rules of cold.

If Finland guaranteed a significant sales volume, Switzerland transformed into our open-air laboratory once more. Together with partners such as Frigo Consulting and Kaeltering, we perfected the integration of the ejector into the economizer circuit in 2011-2012.

Initially Enex produced directly the ejectors based on a design made by Sintef. More solutions became soon available. Starting 2015 Danfoss developed the “multiejector”, an industrial breakthrough. Carrier and Carel developed the step-motor controlling mechanism for their ejector.

This configuration solved a historical limitation: it allowed the ejector to operate continuously and stably in all environmental conditions, without the need for complex control devices.

In Switzerland the cooperation between Frigoconsulting, Kaeltering and Enex allowed to make preliminary tests with other devices, like for example with an expander. However, the ejector, theoretically less efficient, was superior due to intrinsic simplicity and intrinsic reliability.

Thanks to the prestige gained with the Swiss and Scandinavian plants, the Eastern European market unexpectedly opened up. Some large retailers decided to use CO2 in Romania and Poland for some hypermarkets.

Our “extreme” technology had become our best business card, allowing us to continue stronger than before.