UE Directives tend to equate the benefits associated with the use of natural refrigerants and low environmental impact with those relating to the employment of traditional fluids. The actual Acts provide for obligations and penalties that may weigh on business and management, as well as influence the technical decisions at plant level. In this perspective, the aim of this paper was to realize a CO2 refrigeration system characterized by low environmental impact. The employment of this refrigerant fluid is partly consolidated and its use is increasing throughout Europe but it has not been adequately tested on agricultural products and foodstuffs. However, the possibility to realize a variable geometrical system is deepened, in order to meet a wide range of environmental and process conditions. A flexible prototype plant was designed and realized which is able to perform both subcritical and transcritical cycles, only varying the geometry of the circuit, according to both environmental conditions and product conservation needs. Having such a versatile refrigerating machine which could function as a laboratory test, it is possible firstly to determine, for a very specific application, the most suitable values of the parameters characterizing the process. In particular, to verify the feasibility of a possible solution only in foodstuffs applications where more stages of processing of the product at different values of temperature and humidity which currently require a device for each stage are requested, for example in the production of sausages.
Flexible Refrigeration systems for the food industry with natural fluids, with particular reference to CO2
BIANCHI, Biagio;
2014-01-01
Abstract
UE Directives tend to equate the benefits associated with the use of natural refrigerants and low environmental impact with those relating to the employment of traditional fluids. The actual Acts provide for obligations and penalties that may weigh on business and management, as well as influence the technical decisions at plant level. In this perspective, the aim of this paper was to realize a CO2 refrigeration system characterized by low environmental impact. The employment of this refrigerant fluid is partly consolidated and its use is increasing throughout Europe but it has not been adequately tested on agricultural products and foodstuffs. However, the possibility to realize a variable geometrical system is deepened, in order to meet a wide range of environmental and process conditions. A flexible prototype plant was designed and realized which is able to perform both subcritical and transcritical cycles, only varying the geometry of the circuit, according to both environmental conditions and product conservation needs. Having such a versatile refrigerating machine which could function as a laboratory test, it is possible firstly to determine, for a very specific application, the most suitable values of the parameters characterizing the process. In particular, to verify the feasibility of a possible solution only in foodstuffs applications where more stages of processing of the product at different values of temperature and humidity which currently require a device for each stage are requested, for example in the production of sausages.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
