Born in the Netherlands, John Wijbenga gained knowledge of construction work and material handling early, while working in his family smithy during his school years. He studied mechanics, energy production, controls and refrigeration before he began his professional life as a project engineer in industrial refrigeration, a job where everything he had learned seemed to come together.

Over the last 150 years, we have learned how to use a number of different refrigerants. The first refrigerants were ammonia, ethers, methyl chloride, air and CO2. Later, hydrocarbons emerged, and in 1930s we saw the first series of CFCs, mainly R-11 and R-12, emerging on the market, followed by HCFCs such as R-22 and R-502. Of those refrigerants that preceded CFCs, only ammonia remained on the mainstream market, with CO2 and the hydrocarbons disappearing. Ammonia was used in large industrial systems in many countries because it was very energy efficient.

Finnvera is a specialist financing company owned by the State of Finland and the official Export Credit Agency of Finland. One of Finnvera’s main goals is to improve the competitiveness of Finnish small and medium-sized export enterprises. Guarantees granted by Finnvera usually help a foreign buyer get financing with a longer repayment horizon and, in some cases, at better rates than those offered in the local private sector. This year, one of Finnvera’s main focus areas is to provide guidance on financial and risk management of export business for SMEs.

Tracy Hakala is our Managing Director for China, Australia and New Zealand. Living and working in different countries and environments has made her an expert on cross-cultural communication.

Tobias Häggblom works as a Business Director responsible for our Energy team. In his daily work, he enjoys rising to a challenge instead of giving up and finds meaning in working for a company with sound values.

Since 2010, Vahterus has been providing Plate & Shell Heat Exchangers for building-heat packages manufactured by Preston Phipps for the Canadian Market.

In September 2019, Vahterus supplied PSHE 8/6HH460/1/1 unit, a critical-charge combined ice-rink chiller, to Ultimate Fabrication Inc, located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The unit was commissioned in October 2019 and it has been running as a part of new cooling system for Cabin John Ice Arena in Rockville, Maryland, USA. The Vahterus PSHE Combined Chiller (a chiller with an integrated separator in one shell) was a key component in the upgrade project of the NHL and studio-size ice rinks in the Cabin John Ice Arena.

Laser-cutter Ilari Pietilä believes that a little stress improves concentration and performance. He thrives on decision-making, positive feedback and meeting seemingly impossible deadlines.

Innovative Refrigeration Systems provides turnkey design and building services and Industrial refrigeration systems. Vahterus has been their partner in supplying heat exchangers since 2010. When their customer, United State Cold Storage, wanted to increase its blast freezing capacity in Dallas market, Innovative Refrigeration looked to Vahterus for reliability on performance and delivery. The project was realised in three phases, with the initial systems installed in 2013, and the later expansion in 2014 and 2016.

High operating pressures require premium quality

In 2014, Tampereen Sähkölaitos published a decision to invest in a heating plant to be built in the neighbourhood of Hervanta in Tampere, Finland. The plant is a district heating plant based on fluidized bed technology. The benefits of this technology include the option of using fuels with lower heating value, the most notable of which are timber-based forest processed chips, sawdust and bark. The Hervanta plant produces heat and domestic hot water for about 20,000 people. With the new plant, Tampereen Sähkölaitos wanted first and foremost to reduce the use of natural gas in district heat production and, as a result, also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Heat exchangers reducing greenhouse gas emissions