Cold Storage Warehouses - an Engineering Overview

The product to be handled in a refrigerated facility defines the building's function. Will the incoming product be fresh or frozen? If the product is fresh, how much and what kind of further processing will there be done in the facility? This consideration will define the need for ice production and handling, special cutting, portioning, or other processing and/or cooking machinery. Will the further-processed product then be frozen? What the freezing requirements will be is a function of several factors. The quantities to be frozen, how they are prepared and how they are packaged all enter into the choice of process freezing method. Handling of the product, freezing time, and both capital and operating costs are also primary considerations. The are two process freezing techniques-contact freezing and air blast freezing. Contact freezers typically have lower operating costs, particularly from the standpoint of the amount of refrigeration required to accomplish the freezing and the cost of the associated energy required to do the freezing. Contact freezers are most commonly referred to as plate freezers, as the freezing media are flat plates to which the food products are brought into direct contact. The plates are hollow between the two flat surfaces which the product contacts. Cold refrigerant flows through the hollows, chilling the plate surfaces and thus freezing the product. There are two configurations of plate freezers-horizontal and vertical, referring to the planes in which the plates lie in the freezer. Figure 1 is a photo of a vertical plate freezer, which is very common in seafood processing. Vertical plate freezers are used for both packaged and unpackaged product.