Industrial refrigeration systems: everything you need to know | Inditer

Industrial refrigeration systems provide industry with an essential tool for preserving and processing countless products we consume every day. Discover what they are and which equipment is used in each application.

In line with the usage restrictions for refrigerants with a high environmental impact, many options are emerging to implement industrial refrigeration systems with refrigerants with a much lower impact on the environment.

In many cases, refrigerants that had fallen out of use are being brought back and are now on everyone’s lips, such as CO2. In other cases, solutions that were not common in the industrial refrigeration sector are being applied, such as the use of glycol.

Inditer offers a wide range of evaporators in different types, with a carefully engineered design and quality that enables the installation of these systems, effectively adapting to the operating conditions required in each case.

What is an industrial refrigeration system?

An industrial refrigeration system is a system capable of maintaining a cold room at a specific temperature and humidity in which a particular product is stored or processed.

These products can range from fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish to products such as ready meals, ice cream, or dairy products, which require specific temperature conditions during processing and then during storage or maturation.

Industrial refrigeration systems at Inditer

Industrial refrigeration installations use different technologies to achieve a specific objective: cooling a given space. These technologies involve the use of different refrigerants, which leads to various installation types depending on their characteristics.

Next, we will look at the two basic types and briefly describe how they work.

CO2 evaporators

According to the indirect systems scheme, another option widely used today is the use of glycol in the secondary system, so that this fluid is pumped through a distribution ring to the service points of the installation, where glycol evaporators are installed.

This fluid is cooled in a plate heat exchanger, where the glycol transfers its heat to the evaporator of the primary circuit, cooling the glycol, which is then distributed.

High-temperature air coolers or ‘dry coolers’

• Industrial refrigeration installations with transcritical CO₂: In these cases, when the CO₂ refrigerant releases heat to the ambient air, it does not condense; instead, it is cooled without a phase change.

This takes place in the GasCooler at pressures of around 90 bar. Inditer offers an extensive GasCooler range designed for maximum pressures of 130 bar.

On the evaporator side, CO₂ absorbs heat from the medium, and it does so at pressures of around 35 bar (depending on temperature conditions).

• Industrial refrigeration installations with subcritical CO₂ : In this case, CO₂ condenses, as it is ensured that the temperature of the medium to which the condenser must reject heat will be below 32°C. As for the evaporator, it will have the same characteristics as in the case of transcritical systems.

Direct and indirect systems

In these systems, evaporation, compression, condensation, and expansion take place in a single stage, absorbing heat from the cold room and rejecting it to the outside of that room.

Indirect or multi-stage systems

These are multi-stage systems, in which evaporation in the primary system (in red) absorbs the heat coming from condensation in the secondary system (in blue). Following this approach, there are several options.

In the primary circuit of these industrial refrigeration systems, there is an HFC refrigerant such as R134a, R507a, or NH3; it condenses to the ambient air through condensers.

In this type of industrial refrigeration system, the evaporator that absorbs heat from the medium to be cooled is part of the secondary CO2 circuit.

How does the industrial refrigeration cycle work?

The operating principle of an industrial refrigeration system is based on the fact that a fluid, when it evaporates, absorbs heat from its surroundings.

Refrigerants are special fluids with a very low evaporation point. When this fluid enters the evaporator, it evaporates and absorbs heat from its surroundings, specifically from the air passing through the evaporator.

This evaporated fluid passes through a compressor, where its temperature and pressure are increased, conditions suitable for it to be condensed again; during this condensation process, the heat absorbed from the medium to be cooled is released to the ambient air.

Once condensed again, the fluid, in liquid state, reduces its pressure and is introduced back into the evaporator, starting the cooling cycle again.

 

Sectors where these systems are implemented

Industrial refrigeration is present in different production processes:

• Food industry: Food preservation tasks, product ripening (fruit), processing of ready meals, meat industries, dairy…
• Chemical industry: In this sector, pressurised gases at special temperatures are often required in the manufacture of organic and inorganic products, pigments, plastics, fibres, and chemicals. In the oil industry, cold is also used in vapour pressure control systems or to change solubility ratios.
• Power generation: In some cases, electricity generation is carried out using internal combustion equipment, which requires specific industrial refrigeration systems.
• Other types of industries such as: Reactor cooling, vessel inerting, emission purification, biological treatments…

 

Advantages of our systems at Inditer

Depending on the refrigerant used and the operating conditions of the installation, it will be necessary to select a suitable evaporator. To do so, you can use the selection software provided by Inditer for the evaporator range.

Tailored to customer needs

Inditer has a s election software with an extensive range of:

• HFC evaporators with different types, fin spacing, and fan diameters.
• CO₂ evaporators. With a set of types similar to HFC units, but built with specially reinforced materials to withstand the high pressures of these systems.
• Glycol air coolers: With an extensive range of types, fan diameters, and fin spacing, specially designed to deliver optimum performance and minimise fluid pressure drops.
• Air-cooled condenser range: with various types and fan diameters, enabling the condensation process to be carried out optimally and efficiently in any installation, with any type of refrigerant: HCF, CO₂, or ammonia.

 

Quality with 3D design software

We have a highly qualified technical department, specialised in thermodynamic calculation, 3D structural design, and electrical design of evaporator and condenser equipment for any industrial refrigeration installation.

 

Commitment to the environment

Inditer holds certifications for ISO 9001:2015 Quality, ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems Certification, and ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Certification, thereby guaranteeing not only maximum quality in the products it manufactures, but also maximum respect for the environment throughout all processes.

 

Equipment flexibility and versatility

The company manufactures its own finned-tube heat exchangers with different tube diameters and geometries, using high-quality raw materials (leading European brands) such as copper tube and aluminium strip, which are used to manufacture the components required to assemble finned-tube heat exchangers.

This provides absolute flexibility in the design of any evaporator or condenser for an Industrial Refrigeration System.