Many industries rely on industrial refrigeration. Among the industries in California that are heavily reliant on industrial refrigeration are processing, storage, and distribution of time-sensitive fruit and vegetables as well as beverages. Other industries of equal importance are chemical and pharmaceutical, the semiconductor industry, and numerous manufacturing facilities.
The Use of Industrial Refrigeration
Industrial refrigeration includes a host of variables; as such it is difficult to define it accurately. To understand it better, many people focus on sub-sections based on size.
Small and Medium: The small and medium sector by definition represents the majority of installations across the country. The refrigeration units are designed for, and dedicated to, specific cooling demands. In the majority of cases, the units are located close to the operation.
Large: Large systems are used extensively in commercial cold storage facilities. The refrigerant is located in a standalone compressor room and pipes to one or more units.
Design Considerations
These types of refrigeration installations operate at differing temperatures based on the specifics of the application. A large industry in California is food processing. The temperatures used in this industrial sector are similar to the temperatures found in domestic refrigerators, zero to 8 degrees C. Other applications require considerably lower temperatures.
Sizing
The design is based on the assumption that products that are not already chilled will be taken into the refrigerator at room temperature. The cooling requirements are based on the temperature differential. The designs are very different; a refrigeration system that has to drop the temperature 5 degrees C is very different than a system that has to drop the temperature 50 degrees C or more.
A system that is undersized or oversized will not operate efficiently. This results in unnecessary costs in product and energy. The key to operating efficiency is a complete understanding of the application.
