Bonduelle teams up with GEA in improving efficiency

The Bonduelle Group, supplier of canned or deep-frozen vegetables, and processed salads has invested €2 million in upgrading its existing cold storage as well as adding a new high-bay storage facility at its site in Estrées, France. The facility represents both a reduction in the movement of products to other storage sites and lower energy consumption compared with a conventional cold room, with a total of 500 tons equivalent CO₂ saved every year.

25% efficiency improvement of the existing facility

GEA managed to replace the old refrigeration fluid R22 by ammonia without disrupting the operation and included additional measures that on the whole resulted in efficiency improvements of around 25%. The supplementary measures involved installation of frequency controllers to the old air coolers enabling to control the speed of the fans on the cooling units according to actual cooling requirements.

Energy requirements halved at new facility

A new fully automatic refrigeration technology for a cold room with a 24,000-pallet capacity has been constructed by GEA in addition to the revamp of the existing cold storage facility. The key components of the Bonduelle cold storage plant include:

• Two screw type GEA YR-Y2655S-28 ammonia refrigeration units providing temperature of -28 °C, with total cooling duty of 2,100 kW;
• Five GEA Goedhardt air coolers designed to blow cold air from the ceiling downwards and assure effective penetration of the cold storage unit, with a volume of around 150,000 m³.

The especially dedicated air-flow system induces a “refrigeration lake”, which ensures that minimal temperature stratification results, and that the plant reliably maintains the required storage temperature of –20 °C. The technology also guarantees the required temperature with an air-outlet temperature of only -25 °C.

The deep-freeze system that had earlier been installed in a high-bay facility has since its operation in spring 2011 required only about 15 kWh/(m³ a), compared to requirements of approximately 40 kWh/(m³ a) for comparable, conventional large-scale cold-storage plants.

About GEA Refrigeration Technologies

GEA Refrigeration Technologies is a leading global group in industrial refrigeration. GEA designs, engineers, installs, and maintains innovative key components and technological solutions. Typical applications include cooling processes for the food and beverage industries, marine, oil and gas industries, buildings, as well as leisure facilities such as indoor ski centers and ice-skating rinks.

Contact information

If you would like to contact GEA Refrigeration Technologies for any enquiries, you may send a request to Winfried Recker directly.