The architecture and colourful lighting of new Allianz Arena in Munich are captivating to be sure. But that’s not all. It also has some real refrigeration engineering highlights to offer.

Football makes people hungry and thirsty. Particularly the fans. Sharing the thrill also takes energy. The operators of the new Allianz Arena in Munich were justified in making sure that fans were well cared for. The stadium can accommodate up to 70,000 people, and they want to eat and drink. They can get bratwurst, pizza, or French fries for snacks. In two Fan-Centres, Munich breweries, Hacker Pschorr
and Paulaner, dispense their respective brands of beer to the fans. Arena à la Carte is a family restaurant whose bar and bistro offer a menu to fit the tastes of parents, children, VIPs and sponsors. During the off-season high-quality fare must also be ensured so that the stadium can be used as a location for events, conferences or symposia. Given these diverse catering scenarios ranging from mass to exclusive, intelligent and efficient solutions were required particularly from refrigeration engineers. The variety of cooled goods is every bit as varied as the individual tastes of the fans. The refrigeration technology had to meet the widest variety of requirements imposed by the goods that will be cooled. The number of people to be served was also a factor that could not be underestimated:
• 2,200 sponsors,
• 2,600 business seat owners,
• 1,500 VIPs,
• 1,300 visitors each at the two Fan-Treffs and
•  the queues that can be expected in front of the 28 kiosks.

All these people not only want a wide variety of enough food and beverages from the two main kitchens; they also expect all products to be processed with perfect quality. By the way, most of the products offered come from the region.
Responsible for the overall catering concept was Arno Stuckert of Augsburg, a respected specialist planner for the food services industry. Muhr GmbH from Viechtach in Lower Bavaria and Kühlanlagenbau Süd-Ost GmbH from Dresden both oversaw the operative refrigeration engineering implementation. Muhr was responsible for the cooling systems for the two large kitchens, while Kühlanlagenbau Süd-Ost GmbH equipped the kiosks. Installation started in November 2004. In this process the refrigeration systems were installed first, followed by the insulation Installations. As the prerequisite for the system’s function, a chiller system with condensing units was installed on each of the seven levels of the stadium. All of the condensers required for food service applications were connected to this system. The water feed temperature is +8 °C, the return temperature is +40 °C, maximum. Relative to the water-cooled condensers that were used, the operators placed a primary value on extremely quiet operation; in this case the value of 35 dBA was not to be exceeded. Levels 3 and 4 are a good example of the specific refrigeration requirements:

On level 3 in the family restaurant area
• a cooling room for beverages (36 m3),
• a cooling room for dairy products (15 m3),
• a cooling room for vegetables (20 m3),
• a cooling room for meat (20 m3),
• eight refrigeration tables, refrigerated well buffets and walk-in coolers needed to be supplied.

On level 4 in the main kitchen area
• a cooling room for beverages (52 m3),
• a cooling room for dairy products (31 m3),
• a cooling room for vegetables (46 m3),
• a cooling room for meat (46 m3),
• a cooling room for finished goods 1 (42 m3),
• a cooling room for finished goods 2 (42 m3),
• a cooling room for tableware (31 m3),
• a cooling room for ice cubes (22.5 m3),
• cooling for the prep room (129.5 m3) as well as
• cooling for the equipment room (33 m3)
were on the agenda.

Küba Kältetechnik supplied the fan Air Coolers for implementation of the plan. The market plus SP series from the new green economy line and some SG evaporators with increased blow range, directed air flow and higher compression were also used. Thus, Küba units are used in all areas: In the large-scale catering kitchens, in the prep rooms (here some units featured textile hose adapters), in the open cooling rooms, in the deep-freeze rooms, and in the kiosk areas. In line with the new dual division of the Küba world; the Küba Air Coolers offer solutions for both complex cooling tasks, as well as standardised cooling tasks – such as those required in the kiosk area. Nevertheless, the refrigeration engineering challenge posed by the Allianz Arena with the number and variety of requirements associated with the different cooling tasks. The installation itself involved some special features. For example for stadium levels 3 and 4 it was possible to connect all entities requiring refrigeration on these two levels to the cold water plumbing via two multicompressor cooling systems; in other words it was possible to create an integrated solution. However such a construct was not possible for the other levels. Here 19 individual water-cooled condenser units were installed and connected individually to the cold water plumbing. These water-cooled condenser units were directly installed above the cooling rooms – between the cooling room ceiling and the rough ceiling. In addition all cooling aggregates were fitted with a data interface. Thus, fault messages can be detected quickly and the faults can be resolved. The following areas are among those supplied individually:

• Beverage cooling room level 3, sector 1 (97 m3 room volume),
• Wet waste cooling room level 0, sector 4 (43 m3),
• Deep freeze room level 0, sector 4 (70 m3),
• Beverage cooling room level 4, sector 3 (76 m3),
• Food cooling room level 5, sector 1 (49 m3),
• Shock cooler with 12.5 kW cooling capacity.

Given this sophisticated planning and installation nothing can go wrong in the competition for the German and International championships – as the World Cup has clearly shown. Cold beer, delicious bratwurst and a lot of goals – the football fan has every reason to be happy.