2013.09.27

Process Control & Cooling and How it Affects Us All（1）

What is Process Control & Cooling?

Honestly, as people how often do you consider the need for process control & cooling… not very often I would venture. However, it is an everyday part of all our lives and when process control & cooling is either out of control, or not working, we quickly become aware!
Where do most of us interact with process control & cooling?
• In our homes… it’s called air conditioning
• In our cars… the engine has to be cooled as do people in the passenger compartment
• In our offices, airports, hotels, hospitals and most public buildings
So we can quickly grasp how process control & cooling impacts all our lives.
However, in all types of industry process control and cooling are equally and often more evident and in demand, and not just the manufacturing sectors. Just imagine how your food and beverages are prepared and packaged, yep, that’s right, it requires tremendous amount of process control and cooling.
Most bottled beverages including many milk, juice, tea, coffee and beer products have been heated to over 65°C prior to bottling. The entire heating, cooling, filling and capping process is often running at speeds up to 60,000 bottles per hour, (that’s more than 15 bottles per second!), and therefore the process control & cooling is critical to the quality product reaching the shelf in the store or supermarket.

So, whether we are aware of not, process control & cooling plays a vital part of our every day lives in our homes, our transportation, our work places, what we make, what we buy and what we eat and drink.

Two Paragraphs on How Process Cooling Works

For low temperature requirements, like injection molding, beverage pasteurization and air conditioning we use a chiller that has a refrigerant section that cycles a refrigerant liquid through a process of compression and expansion. When the liquid expands it becomes a gas and the by-product of this is the generation of very cold temperatures (like when you use an aerosol for a long time and the can gets cold). By using a network of pumps, valves, pipes and controls we can pass process cooling water and the expanding gas past each other and chill the water to the desired temperature.
This chilled water is then pumped around the process and absorbs the heat in the process, thus keeping the process in control and properly cooled. We use water as the main carrier of heat as it is an excellent conductor of heat and easy to move around by pumping through metal or plastic pipes. Similar to your car engine this heat has to released to the atmosphere and most process cooling systems release the heat to atmosphere using Evaporative Heat Transfer Systems more commonly referred to as Evaporative Cooling Towers.

Why this Important to You?

Cooling tower technology is about 70 years old and frankly has not developed very much since it was first introduced. Todays designs of cooling towers, while better than seven (7) years ago have not evolved to meet today’s global standards of human health and safety, social & environmental responsibility, and many good manufacturing practices (GMP) in the work place. Imagine going to a hospital, hotel or airport that had not been updated for 70 years and you can understand this point very well.
In addition, a cooling tower can often:
1. Consume up to 2% of the complete system flow every hour
a. More than 100,000,000 liters of water per year for just one 20 story building
2. Uses 20% more energy than readably available alternative technologies
3. Uses 90% more water and chemical additives than readably available alternative technologies
4. By design is required to constantly dump water and chemicals into the drains thus further polluting the ground water supply
5. If improperly maintained become perfect breeding and distribution devices for the deadly bacteria, Legionella

Any questions?

1. Does technology exist today that reduces the consumption of water & chemicals?
a. Yes! Frigel equipment uses on average 90% less water & chemicals
2. Does technology exist today that reduces the consumption of energy?
a. Yes! Frigel equipment uses on average 20% less energy
3. Does technology exist today that reduces the dumping of water & chemicals?
a. Yes! Frigel eliminates water & chemical dumping
4. Does technology exist today that reduces the risk of the disease Legionella?
a. Yes! Frigel technology eliminates this risk
5. Can we afford Frigel Technology?
a. The best answer would be: Can we afford not to given the human health risks, the environmental damage and the cost of water, chemicals and energy traditional technologies proliferate?
b. Most Frigel systems have a Return on Investment (ROI) of 18 months to 3 years
6. Why doesn’t every body use Frigel technology and equipment?
a. That’s a really good question!