Positioned as the world’s cooling partner, BAC manufactures leading sustainable cooling technology for a growing international customer base. Ted Lim, Global Vice President and Head of APAC, elaborates.
REINVENTING COOLING
The cooling technology sector has significantly evolved in the past 100 years, particularly with the rise of industrialisation and the need for applications that require more efficient heat rejection coinciding with increasing energy and water constraints caused by global warming.
“For instance, growing urbanisation in recent years means more households are living in denser communities that naturally require more air conditioning (AC). As a result, small, discrete pockets of cooling technology evolve into centralised cooling systems, which require more cooling technology but use less energy per unit,” opens Ted Lim, Global Vice President and Head of APAC at BAC, an industry leader in sustainable cooling technology.
On top of this, growing digitalisation, such as the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), has resulted in the need for more and faster data management across centralised data centres, which often have significant heat rejection requirements.
PIONEERING SPIRIT
At the forefront of meeting such demands, BAC has grown over the last 85 years to offer state-of-the-art cooling technologies for comfort, process, and industrial applications.
This mission has remained steadfast since the company’s founding in 1938 by John Engalitcheff Junior, who, after migrating to the US, started BAC on the pretext of having an efficient way of cooling, resulting in the invention of the patented AC coil.
The business has since evolved to produce many cooling solutions for customers around the world in sectors including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, power and process, manufacturing, data centres, hydrogen production, and many more.
“Our cooling technologies are designed for maximum efficiency with minimal environmental impact. As the world’s cooling partner, we serve our customers and community with sustainable cooling, today and in the future,” Lim prides.
“Our cooling technologies are designed for maximum efficiency with minimal environmental impact. As the world’s cooling partner, we serve our customers and community with sustainable cooling, today and in the future”
Ted Lim, Global Vice President and Head of APAC, BAC
PASSION FOR INNOVATION
BAC’s success revolves around development, manufacturing, and the sale of cooling equipment.
In recent decades, with the growing consequences of heat rejection alongside energy and water constraints, the company has reinvented cooling in such a way to develop a range of innovative energy and water efficient products.
Namely, BAC’s extensive portfolio includes hybrid cooling systems, open and closed-circuit cooling towers, evaporative condensers, adiabatic and dry coolers, ice thermal storage systems, immersion cooling tanks, and aftermarket parts and services.
“These solutions are designed to optimise energy efficiency, water conservation, and system performance,” Lim expands.
The company’s evaporative cooling systems in particular utilise 100 percent water generation and hybrid, adiabatic cooling products which balance the availability of water and energy, demonstrating BAC’s commitment to sustainable cooling technology.
“These hybrid products are able to cool systems with a limited amount of water whilst certainly reducing the power needs of traditional air coolers,” Lim highlights.
The company also makes a point to deliver upon the individual needs of each customer, no matter their location.
“We gather all our customers’ voices and review them in very regular cadence with the aim of providing the most up-to-date sustainable products,” he explains.
BAC has additionally introduced an initiative to achieve more than a 20 percent vitality index – a measurement of the number of sales contributions made by new products versus total sales per year.
“This initiative was introduced not for the sake of development but more as a motivation for BAC to stay ahead of the game of being sustainable and more relevant to the constantly evolving industry.”
THE WORLD’S COOLING PARTNER
BAC is also distinguished by its vast global presence as the company is established in every continent and over 190 countries.
Indeed, BAC has 10 factories spanning the Americas, Europe, Africa, and APAC, supported by approximately 3,000 employees who achieved USD$1 billion worth of sales last year.
Possessing manufacturing facilities in each region enable the company to remain close to the marketplace.
For instance, BAC has two manufacturing facilities in the APAC region in order to serve the needs of both Asia and the Pacific. Meanwhile, the company’s facility in Dalian, China serves the country’s substantial market needs, as well as North and Southeast Asia.
“We have huge success in China thanks to our proximity to our customers there. However, with our business in Southeast Asia growing in the last two decades, which has so far been served by our plant in China, there is a pressing need for the availability of our products in this area,” Lim reports.
As such, BAC has recently made the decision to construct an additional manufacturing facility in Southeast Asia – slated for completion in 2027 – which will ultimately facilitate shorter lead times for customers.
“BAC thrives on the pretext of upholding our key values of being courageous, embracing responsibilities, earning trust from all stakeholders, and most importantly, being innovative in all we do!”
Ted Lim, Global Vice President and Head of APAC, BAC
TRUE SUSTAINABILITY
With the ongoing vision to reinvent cooling to sustain the world, BAC maintains its committed participation in Scope 3 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities, with the overarching aim to be proactive in the global decarbonisation process.
“We have engaged the ESG community and experts in recent years to support us in scoping our opportunities, where we focus first on our production line with the stringent objective to reduce carbon emissions during the manufacturing process,” Lim explains.
In fact, the company has been able to hit its annual carbon dioxide emission objectives for all its 10 manufacturing facilities by switching to alternative energy, alongside a major investment in solar panels for all its existing and future facilities.
As a result of these efforts, its latest plants are now Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified.
Going forwards, BAC strives to continue its upward trajectory in sustainable, cutting-edge manufacturing.
“Our key priorities for the coming year include investing in greater resources to be present in more countries and high-growth industries where opportunities are abundant,” Lim concludes.
These aims will be achieved by launching numerous water and energy efficiency products, introducing faster and more efficient manufacturing processes in its plants across China and Australia, and having a greater focus on the timely construction of its latest manufacturing plant in Southeast Asia.
