This category consists of individual chillers, cooling equipment, and freezers. They typically run from a centralized plant—which is usually ammonia based and sometimes cascaded with CO2 systems—or they use liquid nitrogen (or another cryogenic) for quick freezing and other specialized applications.
Smaller cooling systems may use localized non-ammonia refrigerant systems; however, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are generally being phased out for non-ozone depleting refrigerants such as HFCs and PFCs (for example, HFC-134a).
Cascaded ammonia and CO2 systems combine the advantages of having CO2 on the “lower-temperature side” in plant applications and tend to keep the ammonia in the engine room. While CO2 must operate under high pressures, leaks are not as dangerous to personnel compared to ammonia leaks.
Refrigeration systems power distribution centers and warehouses, and provide localized cooling for ice cream freezers, blast chillers, and ingredient chillers. Suppliers of refrigeration equipment will range from those who provide compressors, condensers, and heat-exchanging equipment to integrators who specialize in building complete, turnkey systems and can work with architects, engineers, and designers to create new cold spaces and refrigerated processes and lines.
Recent technological advances in refrigeration have looked at methods of distributing ammonia around a plant with smaller compressors and ammonia loads to avoid having a large ammonia load in a single location, often requiring specialized permits and personnel to oversee it.
New technologies using novel refrigerant cycles are aimed at augmenting already installed systems, thus saving energy. For example, they can make and store cooled refrigerant in off-peak hours. In addition, though really more applied to point-of-purchase coolers and refrigerated trucks, solid-state electronics remove gases completely from the cooling cycle, and use no moving parts at all—just electricity.
As with process control and packaging systems, most refrigeration systems have been fully automated to save energy and to meet application demands, and AI-based technology will make it possible for refrigeration systems to anticipate these demands.
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