Guinness Brewery / Ireland

Planning / Implementation / Main components

Star Refrigeration Ltd.

Refrigerant

Ammonia (NH₃)

System start-up

2005

The Guinness Brewery in Dublin planned to increase the production volume of its world-famous Guinness Stout beer to twelve million barrels per year. The necessary extension of its refrigeration system was handled by Star Refrigeration.

Demands

The objective was to expand the existing ammonia-glycol refrigeration system within six months, minimising any impact on production.

Solution

Star Refrigeration extended the 5 megawatts system up to 8.9 megawatts, which complements the existing facilities perfectly. A new suction side collector and two plate heat exchangers work with gravity feed alongside the four existing shell-and-tube evaporators. The refrigeration specialists installed six additional variable speed drive glycol pumps and increased the condenser capacity. The modernized system now has a refrigeration capacity of 8.9 megawatts at an evaporating temperature of -4.5 degrees Celsius, without noticeably increasing the ammonia refrigerant charge in the system.

Type of facility

Central refrigeration system

Refrigerant

NH₃

Refrigerant volume

8,000 kg

Refrigerant

Glycol

Refrigerant capacity

8.9 MW

Refrigerant temperature

Evaporating temperature: -4.5 C°

Main components

Two new compressor units with one screw compressor each, four existing screw compressor packs, suction side collector, plate heat exchangers, condenser, three other variable speed drive glycol pumps

Special features / Comments

A computer-based monitoring system optimises all processes and handles the temperature controls. Its efficiency and environmental friendliness earned the project the RAC Cooling Industry Award 2005 for “Installation of the Year.”