Flanagan Foodservice is a leading distribution service company located in Kitchener, Ontario - Canada. For over 30 years, Flanagan Foodservice has provided a "customized approach to distribution" delivering sound growth and expansion of their business.
To keep up with growing demand, a new 6,000 square metres addition doubles the size of the current facility, featuring state of the art CO2 refrigeration technology, and creating the first facility in Canada to implement this technology.
A dual temperature ammonia/CO2 fluid refrigeration package system refrigerates the 360 kW at –15°C of 4,200 m2 of freezer space and 120 kW at –28°C of 450 m2 of Ice Cream freezer supplied by Mayekawa Canada.
Innovative technology will help to drive the performance of the plant
Flanagan describes the project as "exciting", as innovative technology will help to drive the performance of the plant. The system utilises only natural refrigerants: ammonia and carbon dioxide, that have minimal (0 and 1 respectively) global warming potential. Besides that, it is more energy efficient than corresponding systems using traditional fluids like propylene glycol.
Quinn Vo, Mayekawa Corporate Engineer, along with Canadian, Japanese and U.S. counterparts, engineered the system that runs on top of the refrigerated building at Flanagan. Mr. Vo and his colleagues followed the start up of the systems closely, where Danfoss technology helped to provide outstanding results in temperature control.
A cross-divisional effort within Danfoss supplied the well known ICF valve stations feeding CO2 to the evaporators, flooded shell and tube NH3/CO2 exchangers as well as variable frequency drives and pressure transmitters which run the NH3 screw compressors and CO2 pumps. The use of ICM motorized valves in the ICF assembly played a key role in maintaining a stable liquid supply.
The Danfoss frequency converters allow for full balance in the load control of the NH3/CO2 system, meeting the challenges of the flow and the thermal dynamics of CO2.
Solutions such as the ICF which was introduced in 2006 have exceeded the requirements of high CO2 pressure systems, with 52 bar rating on a 40 bar CO2 system design. Furthermore, the need for compact solutions that deliver fewer potential leaks and reliable performance, makes ICF ideal for OEMs and end-users, as a single product platform operates for both natural refrigerants in use at Flanagans.
For more information regarding this case-study please visit:
www.flanagan.ca