Working alongside a British company, Frimavi is a specialist of post-harvest pre-cooling tunnel solutions. The Frimavi founders had previous experience in hospitality and catering sectors providing commercial and industrial cooling services.
Frimavi specialises in working with a vast range of solutions including HFCs, ammonia and more recently, HFOs (hydrofluoroolefins). Always at the forefront of technological advancements Frimavi came across HFO 1234ze from the Honeywell Solstice® range. With a GWP less than 1 and enhanced efficiency HFO 1234ze is an attractive solution for those looking to reduce their environmental impact.
The biggest challenge at Zanemi’s site in Villena (Alicante, Spain) was a very outdated system suffering from a number of leaks and costing the company a significant amount in tax. Frimavi were asked to renovate the site and design an ammonia-based system to reduce the tax paid.
After studying the properties of HFO 1234ze, Frimavi proposed to design the system using a HFO 1234ze chiller reducing the investment cost by 20%.
In comparison to an ammonia-based system the COP is similar but the new installation is a lot less complicated, requires less investment and reduces maintenance costs by 70%. The new system does not require cooling towers.
To process 10 tonnes of carrots per hour, Zanemi requires 250kW to maintain two rooms at 1 °C and to supply a continuous tunnel in which products enter at 25 °C and leave at 2 °C.
The chiller, which can use an A2L refrigerant, is installed outside, conforming to the requirements laid out in the ATEX directive. The installation operates correctly under the lowest service pressure.
The chiller and the refrigerant are working with excellent productivity and with Temper, as the heat-transfer fluid for this installation, which has proven to be more efficient than glycol.
Success – Experience
José Luis Sánchez Ruiz, Technical Sales Representative at Frimavi
« Our mission is to develop and deliver innovative, efficient and economical solutions to our customers. HFO 1234ze refrigerant not only helped us to achieve our goal but it also allowed us to reduce the impact on the environment».
Solstice® ze: the solutions of the future
« We had a great experience with HFO 1234ze. We intend to use a chiller with an economiser in order to improve sub-cooling. We believe that it’s possible to boost efficiency by 15% at a reasonable cost. Two other installations are already using this refrigerant, and others are currently in design.» José Luis Sánchez, manager at Frimavi
Benefits:
- GWP < 1
- Lower tax burden
- Reduced investment cost
- Low maintenance costs
- No malfunctions
- Excellent COP