Project - Energy savings on industrial cooling tunnels by means of reduced ice formation on evaporators
Energy savings on industrial cooling tunnels by means of reduced ice formation on evaporators
Project start January 15th 2011. Projected ended January 15th 2013.
Purpose of project
The project purpose is to reduce the energy consumption of industrial refrigeration systems that involves cooling tunnels. Cooling tunnels are widely used in the food industry to chill or/and freeze food. Particularly in relation to chilling, water avporates from the product which ends up as ice on the evaporator surfaces. That causes periodic operation stop and practical handling plus extra energy consumption of the refrigeration system and for defrostning. DTI has over the past 10 years worked with functional nanocoatings, with ice repellent or freezing point depressing functions.
Objectives
The coating technology has now reached a maturation level which makes it possible to take it from laboratory stage to precommercial stage. If the project succeeds it will be possible to operate such cooling surfaces continuously without top for defrostning and the energy consumption for refrigeration will be reduced both directly and indirectly.The project will develop prototypes for laboratory testing of coating functionality plus snow handling systems and use the experience gained for demonstration of a second prototype at a slaughterhouse facility.
Activities
The project is divided into 4 phases:
- Analysis and design
- Laboratory testing
- Demonstration
- Dessimination
Participants
- Danish Technological Institute
- Alfa Laval GroningenBV
- Tican a.m.b.a.
Funding
The project was funded by Dansk Energi.