PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Ammonia packs replace
old central plant
By John Ackermann
When the time came for Gansbaai Marine to upgrade their flake ice-making system in 2018, they
approached Everflo, who subsequently designed and manufactured a unique ammonia cooling system
comprising four packaged refrigeration units piped to four flake ice makers.
G
ansbaai Marine in the Western Cape was
founded in 1962 and requires 100 tonnes of
ice daily to cool sardines caught at sea. The
sardines are then brought back, pumped off the boat,
and canned in their factory.
Although some fishing boats have an ice maker
on-board or refrigerated seawater (RSW) systems, at
Gansbaai Marine, because of the short duration at sea,
the ice is made onshore. Before leaving for sea, flake
ice is conveyed from a bunker about 50m from the
quayside and mixed with seawater in the hold to create
slurry ice to cool the freshly caught sardines.
OLD DIMPLE PLATES
Their existing flake ice maker was of the ‘falling film’
design with vertical dimpled plates. The harvested ice
dropped into a vertical 8m bunker with raking system and
conveyor to the quayside.
Gansbaai Marine was an ideal application for Everflo’s
packaged ammonia units. To meet the maximum daily
Everflo has access to the plant control panel via the mobile network to advise on fault finding or
setting of parameters.
requirement, Everflo proposed four packaged units piped
to four vertical flake ice makers.
The new system was installed during the months when
no fishing took place and was ready for the new season
in August 2018.
STANDARD PACKS ADD FLEXIBILITY
Evert Potgieter, managing director of Everflo, gave insight
to the design of the plant.
“Instead of going for a more conventional central
plant, we selected four of our packaged ammonia
packs and these were piped to four imported
Geneglace flake ice makers designed for pumped
ammonia circulation,” he explains.
Each package has a cooling capacity of 145kW at
-25°C evaporation and +30°C condensing temperatures.
Each ammonia package has a mass of four tonnes and is transported to site on conventional road vehicles.
Site work required installation
of suction and liquid ammonia
piping between ice makers
and the Everflo packages.
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Being close to the quayside, the packages are cooled by seawater in a marine shell and tube condenser with titanium tubes.
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
COLD LINK AFRICA • May 2019