Evaporative and Adiabatic Condenser for a Dairy in the Langhe Region

1. Installation context and requirements

The expectation of the Langhe dairy was to make a scale-up of its business to supply the large-scale retail trade, with a focus on energy efficiency. The plant solutions adopted therefore had to support this growth, through a two-unit refrigeration system with different objectives.

A first unit needed to be provided for cooling with R1234ze refrigerant. On the other hand, the second, operating with transcritical R744, was to recover high quality water, which was then to be reused in heating the maturing cells.

2. Proposed solutions

For both contexts, the Telos company has provided MITA cooling and condensing solutions: one evaporative and one adiabatic. Specifically, the first of the two refrigeration units is now served by the MCE evaporative condenser: a system that provides for reduced energy use thanks to the low installed powers. The second of the two refrigeration units, the transcritical R744 unit, on the other hand, is supported by the gas cooler. Its electrically controlled fans ensure low energy use.

In addition, adiabatic cooling enables high performance in warm seasons compared with air systems.

3. Results and key success factors

“With the technical solutions adopted in the transcritical R744 unit, we cover between 80 percent and 100 percent heat load of the plant”, says Telos engineer Pasini with satisfaction. MITA Cooling Technologies’ gas cooler also helps support this performance.

The Telos design firm, which accompanies clients from the initial definition of needs to testing and fine tuning, has been following the Langa dairy project since July 2014. Testing took place in July 2017. A special eye in the choice of supplies, by the company’s explicit admission, is always given to the preferable solutions in terms of economic and energy efficiency: hence the decision to invest in MITA machines.