Ejemplos de buenas prácticas

Pro­yec­to Co­ca Co­la Stra­tum Li­be­ria, Costa Ri­ca.

Subsectores: Industrial Refrigeration

This project is one of the most modern, technological and automated plants of Coca Cola in the world. It is a project of approximately $ 100,000,000.00 and 43,132 square meters of construction that has the LEED Silver certification. What was our work on this project? It consisted of starting up the complete refrigeration system of the plant, which included all the air conditioning, the cooling of the process water and the cooling of the refrigerated storage chambers and the freezing chamber. One of the most important conditions was to do an energy efficient and environmentally friendly project, and although the project was originally designed with ammonia, the required power and the volume of refrigerant in the system raised doubts about the application of this natural refrigerant. In term of refrigeration level, the plant required 750 TR in plant air conditioning and 150.0 TR in cold water systems for process and 208.0 TR in refrigerated and frozen storage systems. Originally the project was designed by other professionals, and the question at that time was not exactly the refrigerant, the question was oriented towards the ammonia volume of the system. The original design considered approximately 8 thousand pounds of ammonia. Our job then consisted of redesigning the project, it was then that we changed from a recirculated ammonia system to a direct expansion system for low temperature charging, where we used evaporators with a maximum ammonia volume of 2 pounds per equipment and, we maintained the water and propylene glycol cooling system with a flooded ammonia system; which in one way or another is also a low volume system. Our contribution was in addition to that, to increase the efficiency of the system, we increased the evaporation temperatures, we decreased the installed power and this represented an approximate energy saving of $250,000.00 per year and it was also possible to minimize the amount of equipment in the machine room. From an original design of 8 compressors we redesigned to 6 screw compressors of the same model and that came to give safety and an additional benefit for the maintenance . Entering the engine room we find 6 screw compressors, in this case they are Frick, they are 6 identical compressors in terms of model and power. We are going to find three plate heat exchangers, one for process water cooling, one for air conditioning water and another for propylene glycol cooling with which we air-condition the refrigerated storage chambers, named Water house and cool Flamable. We also found an ammonia dehydrator, which was incorporated to remove any moisture or water and thus maintain the efficiency of the system. In addition, we find that automation system, which one we not only control, we also monitor the entire refrigeration system of the machine room. Security and leak detection systems that comply with IIAR standards were incorporated into the system. It is basically an engine room where the entire volume of ammonia is concentrated, we are talking about 2800 pounds, 5000 pounds less than the original design. It is important to mention that the new design considered the use of heat of the oil compressor for heating the storage frozen floor and thus taking advantage of residual energy, a radiant floor was built. The main achievements of the project in terms of the redesign of the refrigeration system were the following: • The installed power of the cooling system was reduced by 472.5 Hp (352.49 KW). • The efficiency of the system was increased by 13.26%. • The ammonia volume was decreased by 4,822.00 pounds (2,187.24 Kg). • Ammonia, a natural refrigerant with a GWP of zero, was maintained. • The heat of the compressor oil was used in the requirements of the same system. • Equipment was standardized so that six compressors were installed identical in model and power. • A system was redesigned under the IIAR standards, the INTECO standards in Costa Rica, the Montreal Agreement and the Carbon Neutrality Country Program. • Savings were achieved in the initial investment.

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