Danone Ferrières en Bray

Planning / Implementation / Main components

Axima Refrigeration France

Refrigerant

Ammonia (NH₃)

System start-up

2004

Danone, a producer of fresh dairy products headquartered in Paris, operates a plant for manufacturing yoghurt and cottage cheese in Fèrrieres en Bray, Northern France. The ammonia refrigeration plant, operational since 1982, was modernized by Axima Refrigeration France.

Demands

Danone practices sustainable development, and keeps its production processes economical and environmentally compliant. Therefore, it was looking for a product preserving refrigeration solution that minimizes energy consumption and refrigerant load.

Solution

The refrigeration system consists of liquid chilling units using ammonia, which supplies 400 cubic meters per hour of chilled water at 1 degree Celsius. The chilled water is conducted to various consumers like cold stores and specific rooms through a piping network. As the demand for cold energy varies over the day, Axima Refrigeration France supplied an ice storage tank that stores the extra cold energy and releases it again when demand is high. The old pipe heat exchangers were replaced with flooded plate heat exchangers, which reduced the ammonia load from 18 tons to 750 kilograms. Axima Refrigeration France replaced five of the seven reciprocating compressors by two higher-capacity screw compressors and thinner pipes were installed.

Type of facility

Chilled water refrigeration unit with ice storage tank

Refrigerant

NH₃

Refrigerating volume

750 kg

Secondary refrigerant

H₂O

Refrigerating capacity

up to 3,100 kW

Main components

an ice storage tank, flooded plate heat exchangers, two screw compressors, two reciprocating compressors

Special features / Comments

The modernization measures significantly lowered the plant's energy consumption and the NH₃ load.