Cool Executive, founded by Christian Oléon and his partners, specialises in industrial refrigeration and counts Mauritius-based Proxifresh among its customers, a company that imports, exports and processes fruit and vegetables.
Proxifresh founder and director, Yan Mayer, had already turned to Cool Executive to supply a refrigeration system, enabling the company to save 25% on its electricity bill. He explained : «We process organically or sustainably produced fruit and vegetables, as I’m very committed to sustainable development. As our business is growing rapidly, we decided to invest in a new 1,200 m² building. For the refrigeration system, I wanted something innovative and energy-efficient that didn’t use fluids that harm the environment».
It was Christian Oléon, from Cool Executive, who suggested using Greenway® Neo bio-based heat transfer fluid. «I am really pleased that I was able to choose a biobased, biodegradable product that would suit our food processing business and also fit in with my philosophy».
The new production site has five 140 m² storage rooms, with different temperatures depending on the products they hold : from 3 to 5°C for green and leafy vegetables (such as lettuces), from 7 to 8°C for potatoes, and from 10 to 12°C for tomatoes, melons and pineapples. The facility also has two 384 m³ work rooms. The processing room, where the fruit and vegetables are cut up, needs to be between 10 and 12°C and houses a chilled water tank for keeping the products cool after they have been rinsed. The temperature in the preparation room, where the fruit and vegetables are packaged, ranges from 15 to 18°C. The heat exchangers between these work rooms are chambers that operate with turbines and textile ducts for air distribution.
Cool Executive chooses Greenway® Neo for several reasons. At first, the company considered monopropylene glycol, but Daniel Dias, Key Account Manager at Climalife, suggested they use Greenway® Neo instead, which would save energy on the circuit pumps. At the same time, the French Development Agency (AFD) was offering an 8% subsidy on investor customers’ loan amounts, provided that the investment reduced their facilities’ total energy consumption and use of mineral resources. Greenway® Neo managed to fulfil both of these conditions. It is a safe, environmentally-friendly product that also allows Proxifresh to demonstrate its commitment to protecting nature.
Cool Executive is delighted with Greenway® Neo and is considering the feasibility of using the same fluid for other installations : « For us, it seems to be the most beneficial heat transfer fluid on the market », says Christian Oléon.
The solution
For chilling its fruit and vegetable storage and processing rooms, Cool Executive opted for a chilled water loop system.
With a factory-installed unit and the glycol water at 1.5 bar in a new stainless steel system, the risks of leaks are very low and maintenance costs are also reduced. An Aermec unit was installed, running at a temperature of +2 /-3°C at 120 kW with an input power of 45 kW. To help protect the environment, Cool Executive purchased undiluted Greenway® Neo, reducing the weight to be transported and generating less pollution. The fluid was then diluted to reach a freezing point of -16°C. The evaporation temperature was -8 /-10°C and the flow rate 28 m³ per hour.
After the filters were checked at the pumps to ensure that the circuit was perfectly clean, the product was used for the first time with great success. Cool Executive then checked the concentration and pH*: having diluted the heat transfer fluid itself, the company took care to ensure that there was no contamination from the water and that the benefits of the inhibitors had not been impaired.
* Climalife offers analyses for heat transfer fluids.