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The energy saving potential of ambient cooling systems.

Author(s) : JAMES S. J., SENSO Y., JAMES C.

Summary

The surface temperature of cooked products is very high when they leave baking ovens or deep fat fryers, and consequently the difference between the surface and the ambient is very large at that time. The cooling and freezing of cooked products is one of the top 10 uses of refrigeration energy in the cold chain. The introduction of an ambient cooling operation prior to refrigerated chilling or freezing operations can significantly reduce the heat load and energy consumption of chilling and freezing systems. It is therefore important to encourage the use of ambient cooling within the food industry in cases where product quality and food safety are not compromised. Specific examples of ambient cooling of hash browns prior to freezing and pies prior to blast chilling are discussed in this paper. Hash browns emerged from a fryer at 80°C and had to be frozen to -12°C before packaging at a process rate of 4.5 tonnes/h. The introduction of an initial 5 minutes of ambient cooling removed 562,500 kJ of heat energy from the 4.5 tonnes of hash browns every hour. It also prevented 60 kg per hour of water freezing on the evaporator. With pies, a two-stage process was designed incorporating an initial ambient cooling stage followed by a redesigned multi-rack chilling tunnel. The system has now been installed and shown to achieve more controlled, uniform and faster cooling of the pies than previously achieved with a single-stage chiller.

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Pages: 2010-1

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Details

  • Original title: The energy saving potential of ambient cooling systems.
  • Record ID : 2010-0534
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 1st IIR International Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain
  • Publication date: 2010/03/29

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