REFRIGERANTS
the poultry must be cooled very quickly to 4 degrees Celsius, and must then be maintained at this temperature and at low levels of humidity throughout the cutting and packing processes until it is further chilled or frozen for distribution. With the capacity to process up to 14,500 chickens per hour, the cutting area at the plant is very spacious so a highly efficient solution was required to maintain the appropriate low ambient operating temperatures to keep the meat temperature low and stable.
Freezing and chilling processes are also extremely temperature-sensitive, with product for fresh distribution packed at 0 degrees C and the remainder batch frozen to minus 18 degrees C, for export or further processing such as for chicken nuggets. Finally, the same system needed to allow for ventilation, the continuous refreshment of air, as well as air conditioning in both the factory and offices to help regulate temperature and humidity levels. Wipasz required 5.3 MW of cooling capacity for a chilling tunnel, 64 air coolers in processing areas, five plate freezers, five batch freezing tunnels and two cold stores. The equipment includes reciprocating compressor units for air conditioning of the plant and screw compressors for driving the main cooling process for poultry and for freezing and generating the heat for water and air conditioning.
In addition, the Polish firm has installed eight air handling units for ventilation of the production rooms and four for air conditioning of the office building, all supplied with cooling from the central ammonia plant and heat recovered from it. The plant also has the potential to further expand its cooling capacity by another 3.2 MW, making it much easier to increase production in the future without starting from scratch. It is also equipped with two heat recovery systems of 3,9MW that cover the facility’s entire hot water and other heating needs, including offices and social areas, meaning a reduced carbon footprint and very quick return on investment thanks to the lack of boiler requirement.
Hygiene standards for poultry processing are
very high – plants use huge amounts of hot water and the moisture left behind must be removed by an efficient ventilation system as production areas need to be dry, which in turn requires a lot of heating.
A 65 HP heat pump is an important component of the factory’s waste heat recycling system, producing higher temperatures up to 55C. Energy-efficient heat pumps are rapidly becoming the technology of choice in the drive for a carbon neutral future, to meet ever-stricter
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environmental regulations, and also to enable food manufacturers to hit their own sustainability goals and reduce operating costs. When a heat pump is combined with a refrigeration unit, both cooling and heating are possible, turning one-time use into a continuous cycle and lowering energy costs by 30% or more. That’s a significant saving when you consider that within the food, dairy and beverage industries, up to 60% of energy usage goes to heating and cooling.
Energy efficiency plays a key role in achieving sustainability in process industries. For GEA this is the crux of its Sustainable Energy Solutions (SEnS) programme that integrates process and utilities (refrigeration and heating) solutions, helping processing plants understand how best to reduce their energy footprint and running costs without compromising output or the bottom line.
Usually in a food storage environment up to 90% of energy use is for refrigeration; food processors have nothing to lose and everything to gain from adopting advanced refrigeration technologies to further reduce running costs and CO2 emissions – and ultimately to help reach their sustainability targets.
If a facility can get the utilities and processing teams working together to a common goal, that of significant cost and energy savings, then the most amazing transitions can be achieved. Get the experts in as early as possible in the process and there is less likely to be fallout later since the solution can be more closely aligned to
expectations from a very early stage. Seeing a return on investment (ROI) sits alongside sustainability as a goal for every plant. This can be heavily dependent on points of comparison – the normal cost of energy, for example. The higher the unit price of energy before new solutions are introduced, the quicker a sustainable plant will benefit from its ROI. Another key factor is selecting the most experienced and knowledgeable partners to help get the very best out of that plant. What’s the difference between piston and screw compressors, for example? One achieves the highest efficiency at high speed, the other at low speeds. Which do you choose? Do you need both? The questions could be endless but the right people will devise the best sustainable solution to give the quickest ROI.
There is a push-pull situation in play: aside from the desire by factories to lower energy consumption and operating costs, targets for cutting emissions are tightening and, in our lifetimes, the use of fossil fuels such as gas and oil will become obsolete along with the boilers that burn them.
Environmental restrictions will impact all sectors of the European food industry and actions will be driven by the philosophy of reduce, renew and re-use. This is where the new technologies come into their own: extracting waste energy and re-using it to reduce or even negate the need for additional energy sources and outdated equipment and, like Wipasz, improving productivity and cutting both costs and pollution.
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