Engine Rooms

Ammonia Engine Rooms

Realcold Milmech is privileged to be involved with the major clients in the Australasian food processing, cold storage and distribution sector. This has evolved from years of industrial experience offering a flexible approach to various refrigerants and systems, considered for each application in turn. Although the emphasis is centred on energy efficient and technically sound solutions, the customers’ viewpoint is of paramount importance.

In view of the environmental control with the use of refrigerants, ammonia is predominantly used for larger systems encouraging low charge. High activity chilled distribution stores and process rooms usually employ secondary refrigerants such as propylene glycol to minimise the quantity of ammonia within the chilled areas.

CO₂ Engine Rooms

Recent developments have allowed the use of a “new old” refrigerant, adopted on a recent large automatic carton freezer tunnel and distribution centre, with Realcold Milmech receiving worldwide recognition for the development of CO₂. This accolade has allowed further investigations into the use of CO₂ as an ozone friendly, low global warming first choice refrigerant.

CO₂ systems operate at higher pressures but require less power to operate than a conventional system. Pipes are stainless steel and of smaller diameter. A CO₂ system operates at -48°C compared to -36°C for ammonia systems and gets the heat out more quickly, effectively freezing product in half the time.

For any given output of frozen cartons the space required to house the unit is smaller, saving on the cost of the building. Halving the time required to freeze products provides some inventory management advantages.

A significant feature of the system is that all refrigerated areas are cooled using CO₂ and the primary ammonia system is confined to the plant room with a 90% reduction in the ammonia charge compared to a conventional system.

Major advantages of CO₂ are its availability, its reduced toxicity, low flammability and its environmental advantages compared with many other refrigerants. It offers significant occupation health and safety advantages.