Star turn keeps meat cool
23 October 2008
Star Refrigeration has designed and manufactured an efficiency boosting
cooling system for Granville Food Care in Northern Ireland
Star installed the energy saving refrigeration plant at Granville¹s meat
freezing and cold storage facility in Dungannon, County Tyrone. The
innovative cooling system was designed to replace an existing R22 plant and
increase production to meet demand from UK retailers.
Star's turnkey cooling solution for Granville comprised a state-of-the-art
ammonia and carbon dioxide (CO2) cascade plant. Operating on natural
refrigerants, the dual purpose plant provides cooling for both blast
freezing and cold storage.
The cascade plant supplies cooling to three cold storage areas and seven
blast freezers at the Granville facility. Star¹s refrigeration system is
one of the first in Northern Ireland to use CO2 technology for blast
freezing.
Star Refrigeration Sales Director Rob Lamb says: ''The ammonia and CO2
cascade plant has allowed Granville to reduce energy consumption and gain a
significant increase in throughput, by improving product freeze times by 23
per cent. The plant also has a very low ammonia charge, which is isolated
to the plant room.''
He adds: ³Overall, the new refrigeration plant has enabled the client to
expand business without further investment in building infrastructure.²
The Granville plant has a total refrigeration capacity of 1,227kW. The
system was designed with sufficient in-built compressor capacity to allow
future expansion of the existing cold store.
The new plant is located in a purpose built plant room adjacent to the main
building. It comprises two low temperature CO2 compressors and surge drum,
supplying liquid CO2 to cold stores and blast freezers. It also features
two ammonia compressors and evaporative condensers, as well as two ammonia
to CO2 cascade heat exchangers.
The Granville project included the removal of R22 refrigerant from the site.
Some of the original plant was designed by Star over 25 years ago and had
served the client well. Star worked closely with Granville throughout the
34-week project to ensure the project was completed on time and budget.
Two further phases of the project are currently underway, to increase both
cold storage and freezing capacity on site and these are due to complete
over the next six months. When complete, Granville Food Care will have a
blast freezing capacity of 300 tonnes per 15 hour cycle to add to their 100
tonne per day of defrosting capacity.
Star Refrigeration is the UK's largest independent industrial refrigeration
engineering company. Star focuses on the design, manufacture, installation,
commissioning and maintenance of industrial refrigeration systems. The
company offers a turnkey package to all users of refrigeration plant.
Star's technical advisory arm, Star Technical Solutions (STS), operates as
an independent consultancy providing advice on refrigeration engineering
issues. Star also owns food freezing and chilling equipment specialist
Starfrost, as well as mechanical and electrical contractors Penec.
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