A Bangor man is preparing to unveil an invention that he and his team have quietly developed at an innovation center in the city for more than a decade.
James LaBrecque, a refrigeration technician who began his career in 1971 overseeing more than 30 Sampson’s (now Hannaford) supermarkets, has spent the past 12 years developing the FlexCube system, which he claims will alleviate costs for supermarkets nationwide.
The 2-by-2-foot cube contains the technology to run a supermarket’s refrigeration system and heat it without large mechanical rooms, excessive pipes and other complicated elements, said LaBrecque, who was former Gov. Paul LePage’s energy adviser from 2010 to 2018.
While a handful of Maine grocery stores use previous versions of the FlexCube system, the latest version that runs on less toxic refrigerants will premiere at the newly built Hunter’s Shop ‘n Save in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on June 20. LaBrecque hopes to take it to production in January.
The invention from his company, Flexware Control Technology, is the result of more than a decade of operation at the Bangor Innovation Center on Johnson Street. Run by the BanAir Corp., the incubator was designed to help startup businesses “get their feet underneath them and grow,” said Brad Wall, the city’s business development specialist. It offers offices and spaces for manufacturing and distribution.
If all goes according to LaBrecque’s plans, he will expand with a manufacturing facility, though that project is likely a year and a half away, he said. He anticipates continuing to lease space at the center for research and development, along with limited production.
His FlexCube system relies on A2Ls, refrigerants that are more climate-friendly than those traditionally used in commercial refrigeration systems and have appeared in supermarkets in Europe but not in the United States, LaBrecque said.
Keeping up with the federal government’s evolving standards related to refrigerants, supply chain problems post-COVID and working one-on-one with supermarkets on refrigeration solutions are among the reasons it has taken this long to publicly share the FlexCube system, he said. Flexware Control Technology has also spent the last decade making other products.
The FlexCube system should last supermarkets about 20 years, and “it gets rid of a major cost to these stores, which is refrigerant leaks,” he said.
The commercial refrigeration industry needs innovative ideas because the Environmental Protection Agency is enforcing stricter limits on hydrofluorocarbons used in air conditioners and refrigerators, LaBrecque said. Hydrofluorocarbons are highly potent greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.
The EPA announced last July a rule to reduce hydrofluorocarbons by 40 percent starting this year through 2028. The rule, part of an ongoing phaseout intended to slow climate change, aligns with a 2020 law that calls for an 85 percent reduction in production and use of the chemicals by 2036.
The FlexCube uses 75 percent less hydrofluorocarbon gas than a typical refrigeration system, according to Flexware’s website.
LaBrecque, whose motto is “simplifying the complex,” wanted to design a technology that would “change how we build supermarkets” because he did not see the shortage of HVAC technicians in the U.S. improving, he said. To entice supermarket chains to work with him, the product also needed to save them money.
Because the FlexCube system takes up little space, rooftop condensing units and rooms with pipes and mechanical equipment are not necessary. Eliminating them saves money during construction — about $1.5 million for the supermarket in Wolfeboro — and requires less maintenance, he said.
A handful of grocery stores in Farmington, Holden, Blue Hill and Greene are using the FlexCube system. The store in Wolfeboro, however, will be the first in the nation to fully operate using A2Ls, and it will demonstrate a more sustainable option for the future, LaBrecque said.
“If I was just building a product like everyone else, why would supermarkets want me? This reduces large rooms of complicated equipment down to a small box,” he said.
