PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
EFFICIENCY MATTERS
Going for central water-cooled plant
that employs two multiplex circuits in its
design will drastically improve energy
efficiency from a more traditional
multi-plant arrangement with individual
condensing units cooling each room.
Additionally, using chilled water has the
added benefit of keeping the humidity
levels up in the room, which reduces the
drying effect on the bananas, adding to
their shelf life.
Once the ripening
cycle is complete, the
room can automatically
change state into a
regular cold room with
defrost functionality,
etc. if the end user
chooses to do so.
Entry corridor into ripening rooms.
CHALLENGES
Original ripening rooms, more than 15 years old.
The standard to which this project was
administered and the attention to detail that
the professional team demanded kept all the
contractors on their toes.
Additionally, the original insulation
contractor was fired from the job halfway
through, leaving Themba Projects to learn fast
how to pick up those pieces, and Precool had
to come in to finish up certain panel work and
air curtains.
Credit must go to the Themba Projects
team who quickly learned to install gas-
tight insulated doors imported from Belgium
and finished up a lot of the panel work to
a standard that was in line with the level of
seasoned professionals.
COLD LINK AFRICA • June 2019
The water chillers, which will use the
bulk of electricity on site, are built to
stringent European standards to ensure
optimum efficiency and are charged
with R410a refrigerant.
By using a multiplex design with
modulating valves on the cold rooms,
this plant will work hard to get the rooms
onto temperature. Then, once running,
the chillers will ramp down to 50% or
even below duty and idle with a much
lower energy draw (peak kVA) than
that of a traditional on/off approach.
Additionally, the rooms can hold a
constant temperature to a few decimal
places of the set point.
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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