PROJECT |
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN |
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Proximity to the harbour rail link was a critical factor in Maersk’ s logistics strategy, enabling direct transfer of temperaturecontrolled containers to port while avoiding weather and traffic disruptions.“ With rail access, product can move from cold storage to ship in under 30 minutes, maintaining the cold chain all the way through,” notes FGN director Shaun Hadfield.
THE DESIGN PHASE
Originally conceived as a dual-temperature cold store with both frozen and chilled capacity, the design was later streamlined to a chilled-only system. Even so, the plant was deliberately configured to allow future conversion should deep-freeze capability ever be required.
“ These kinds of changes are common in large industrial projects. Operational teams often come in toward the end with new product requirements, so we build in design diversity early on to absorb those changes,” says Hadfield.
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Maersk’ s sustainability mandate required the exclusive use of natural refrigerants. FGN’ s comparative feasibility study between ammonia and CO₂, ultimately selecting CO₂( R744) for its lower charge volume, safety profile and superior operational efficiency in multi-temperature logistics applications.
“ Both ammonia and CO₂ offered strong efficiency potential, but CO₂ gave us the balance we needed – cleaner handling, modular scalability and the ability to recover and repurpose heat effectively,” says Hadfield.
The CO₂ transcritical system integrates not only the main cold rooms and sterilisation tunnels but also the HVAC and domestic hot water systems, which draw heat directly from the refrigeration plant via heat exchangers. The system includes a 60 000l condensate reclaim tank used to supply the adiabatic gas coolers, reducing both water and energy consumption.
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Construction began in December 2023, with HC Engineering Solutions joining under a direct contract with Maersk. Despite global component shortages and mid-stream design revisions, the facility reached practical completion in April 2025 and final take-over in July, in time for the fruit-export season.
REIMAGINING STERILISATION TUNNELS
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Belcon design is its force cooling( sterilisation) tunnels, which replace the traditional chamber-based pre-cooling method used in most South African facilities.
Hadfield explains that instead of cooling an entire room each time, the Belcon system maintains a constant room temperature and forces controlled airflow through the packed product stacks.“ We’ re not trying to pull the whole room down every time. We maintain a stable chilled environment and use directed airflow to bring product temperatures down quickly and evenly,” he says.
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The result is a high-throughput, low-energy cooling process with precise temperature control and minimal handling. During the recent citrus season( 2025), this system reportedly demonstrated exceptional performance, maintaining temperature uniformity without the manual product rotation traditionally required in bulk cooling systems.
The steri tunnels were engineered in conjunction with the steel racking and pallet geometry to ensure optimal air distribution through the product loads.“ You can have the most powerful fans in the world, but if your air paths and pallet design aren’ t matched, you’ re not cooling efficiently,” Carelson notes.
The Belcon plant operates the following
CO₂ systems:
• Four systems dedicated to sterilisation tunnels
• Two systems serving the cold store, dispatch and receiving areas
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