Dyneo permanent magnet electric motors from Leroy Somer fitted to compressors are at the heart of an innovative new industrial refrigeration system – the first of its kind installed in Europe. Charleville Foods at Ardnageehny in County Cork, Ireland, needed to update and expand its beef chilling, offal processing and dispatch areas to improve the efficiency of its production plant.
The factory handles approximately 112 tonnes of meat during a typical day but a substantial percentage is lost through evaporation. Industrial refrigeration specialists NH3 Refrigeration, of Newmarket, Suffolk, were set the task to find a way of combating this.
NH3 managing director Johnathan Ball takes up the story: “Refrigeration systems by their nature dehumidify air and as a consequence you lose moisture from the product. This shrinkage of the meat combined with the substantial number of cattle being slaughtered for the chilling processes, meant these losses soon built up. At NH3 we have developed a refrigeration system which can guarantee a very low weight loss and in doing so improve the volume of the product leaving the factory gate. Our experience in installing the system around the world has shown it to be a success.”
For the Charleville Foods plant, NH3 designed and installed a new industrial refrigeration system running on ammonia ‘with zero ozone depletion properties’ and in doing so significantly reduced the plant’s CO2 emissions.
Two new Mycom compressors fitted with Leroy Somer energy saving inverter-based electric motors are at the heart of the 2400kW system. NH3 say that the Leroy Somer Dyneo electric motors with their permanent magnet construction, combined with the Powerdrive inverter, are the best way of achieving the energy efficiencies needed at the plant.
The inverter with its variable speed control delivers considerable energy savings. The stop-start mechanism ensures that the compressors are working at full power only when necessary – reducing the refrigeration system’s energy bills at Charleville Foods by as much as eight per cent.
Mr Ball added: “The Leroy Somer variable speed drive electric motors give a dramatic efficiency improvement over and above standard electric motors. The frequency-based inverter decreases or increases the speed of the compressor when the system requires it. So far our improvements have delivered a substantial decrease in the volume of meat being lost”. “but with the amount processed at the plant on a daily basis this is having a significant impact on output.”
Dyneo electric motors with permanent magnet rotor technology are smaller and more efficient than conventional machines. They have:
- IP 55 construction in accordance with IEC 60034
- Power rating from 0.75 to 400 kW
- Torque from 1 to 1400 N.m
- Speed from 1 to 5500 min-1
- Frame size from 90 to 315 mm.
