A cool ammonia solution for a global logistics specialist

By Ginta Vanaga, Nov 20, 2013, 11:36 • 2 minute reading

When the global logistics specialist Kuehne+Nagel required a new refrigeration plant back in August 2012, it was British company Star Refrigeration that provided the environmentally efficient chill store cooling system. Star delivered a high efficiency refrigeration plant incorporating two of its ammonia based Azanechillers. ammonia21.com takes a closer look at this case study and the compact Azanechiller technology.

Global logistics company Kuehne+Nagel needed a new refrigeration plant as part of their plans to further extend a chilled storage facility in Brunklow. The large distribution centre near Milton Keynes handles food and drink logistics for one of the UK’s leading supermarket chains. Thanks to the previous successful projects, Kuehne+Nagel asked Star Refrigeration to provide an environmentally conscious, robust and reliable refrigeration plant for the new chilled storage place.

Ammonia solution for Kuehne+Nagel

Star Refrigeration designed and built a high efficiency refrigeration plant incorporating its Azanechiller technology. The compact ammonia packaged chillers isupply cooling to the multi temperature chill store, with a 56,000 ft2 (5,202 m2) chamber for chilled goods and a 45,000 ft2 (4,180 m2) produce chamber for fresh fruit and vegetables.

The existing refrigeration plant in Brunklow was combined with Star’s Azanechiller system to allow the logistics company to operate the two chambers within the new chill store at different temperatures. Consequently, the existing plant allows the fresh produce chamber to operate at +9°C, with the new Azanechiller system enabling an operating temperature of +2°C in the chilled goods chamber.

The Kuehne+Nagel site features two air-cooled Azanechillers with ammonia being used as the primary refrigerant and glycol as the secondary refrigerant. Each unit has a cooling capacity of 400kW and features a low ammonia charge of less than 0.45kg/kW. To improve the energy efficiency of the plant, waste heat from the Azanechillers is recovered for defrosting the evaporators in the new and existing refrigeration plant.

The Azanechiller technology

Star’s Azanechiller technology is a complete refrigeration package meant for environmentally conscious end users. Suitable for cooling both water and glycol, the Azanechiller package has an ultra low refrigerant charge, with all ammonia contained within the chiller and sited outside the warehouse or production facility.

Azanechillers are available as air-cooled or water-cooled units with cooling capacities from 200kW to 850kW.

According to Star, Azanechiller technology offers a 30% increase in performance compared with standard HFC chillers. It is designed for temperature controlled storage as well as food processing, building services and process cooling. Furthermore, as only an electrical supply and flow pipework is required to provide cooling, the site installation and commissioning time is substantially reduced.

About Star Refrigeration

Founded in 1970, Star Refrigeration has become one of the leading companies in cooling and heating system innovation. It has expanded from an industrial refrigeration company to a multi-faceted engineering group. Today Star Refrigeration is a total solutions provider, active from design through to commissioning and maintenance of cooling and heating systems with a specific competence in the minimization of refrigerant charge and leak-tightness.

It has over 350 employees working from nine branches throughout the UK and a network of overseas partners enabling the delivery of Star solutions around the world.
 

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By Ginta Vanaga

Nov 20, 2013, 11:36




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