U.

Klüe, Geesthacht, Germany*

Ice-water for
the dairy industry
BUCOdelot falling-film-chiller or plate heat exchanger
Figure 2

I
n the past ice stores have
been the preferred refrigera-
tion systems in dairies. They
consisted mainly of galvan-
ised tubes installed in huge
tanks. In the tubes the
refrigerant (ammonia) evap-
orated at a temperature
of approximately – 10 °C or
lower. During the processing
of milk peak demands on
cooling capacity were
required for short times. The
problem could be solved by
using ice as energy storage.
Due to diversification of the dairy
products and the change in the methods
of collecting of untreated
milk, the storage of energy in
form of ice becomes less
important because pasteuri-
sing runs nearly continuously.
The known system of coil
ice store systems have several
disadvantages against falling-
systems corres- The BUCO system assures easy access
pond with the for maintenance and cleaning. No cost
material de- effective dismounting is necessary.
manded today. Compared with plate heat exchangers
The falling-film- (figure 2) this results in lower maintenance
chiller (figure 1) and cleaning costs.
is fully welded An additional advantage is the smaller
and has no pressure drop on the water side with
gaskets between falling-film chillers because of the need of
water and refri- smaller pumps with lower operating costs
gerant side. at similar volume flows. For the design of
They also require plate heat exchangers in many cases 500
lower quality of mbar equal five m liquid column is used.
Figure 1
water with respect The required head of a BUCOdelot falling-
to dirt. When using film-chiller is only half of that.
plate heat exchangers, filters are necessary Often in the operation of falling-film
or at least recommended. chiller disadvantages are imputed which
are not there. Mostly the higher
Figure 3: Plate Heat Exchanger PHE versus BUCO falling film price of the falling-film-chiller is
chiller BWP taken as the first argument.
To judge this it is necessary to
compare equal situations. The
30.000 A Control system
falling-film chiller can supply ice
Evaporator
water temperatures of 0.5 °C
without problems and there is
investment costs

film chillers or plate heat 20.000 A no risk of destroying the chiller.

exchangers. This is why this Plate heat exchangers are
modern and energy optim- designed normally for a
10.000 A
ising variants of cooling temperature of 1 °C where
equipment are more and more special care has to be taken to
installed today. Compared 0A controls.
PHE BWP-20B PHE BWP-17M PHE BWP-9M PHE BWP-5M PHE BWP-3K
with the conventional ice 1 800 kW 1 000 kW 500 kW 250 kW 100 kW
We quote a manufacturer of
store systems which work refrigeration capacity plate-heat-exchangers: “Despite
with very low u-value if ice is all mentioned advantages of
built around the tubes, falling- PHE in dairies, it has to be told,
film and plate heat exchangers work with
u-values which are 30 to 50 times as high as
in conventional systems. Another import- Figure 4: Advantages and disadvantages of the compared systems
ant advantage of those new products is the
material choice which is nearly always plate heat exchanger (PHE) falling-film-chiller (BWP)
stainless steel as required by European price including controls more expansive than BWP cheaper than PHE
guide lines for ice water supply. space demand similar similar
The following lines describe the cleaning regularly sometimes
costs for cleaning and maintenance high low
differences between the BUCOdelot falling-
costs for gaskets for big PHE approx. 7500.– A –
film chiller and plate heat exchanger. Both
necessary water pump > 5 m water column < 2,5 m water column
u-value high high
* Mr Klüe is CEO of BUCO Wärmeaustauscher
International GmbH; u_klue@buco-gmbh.de

8
 Figure 5: BIC-Load profile – Ice water supply/capacity Figure 6: BIC arrangement

350
Peak load stored in ice
300
250
Direct cooling 125 kW
200
kW

150
100
50
0
13.00

23.00
10.00
11.00
12.00

14.00
15.00
16.00
17.00
18.00
19.00
20.00
21.00
22.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
0.00

time

Figure 7: BEE-Load profile – Ice water supply/capacity

2 500
Peak load stored in ice
2 000

1 500
kW

Direct cooling 500 kW

1 000
“At plate-heat-ex- have to be changed, gaskets have
500 changer on both to be renewed. After that procedure
sides and on the the whole heat-exchanger has to be
0 loose plate a distance pressure tested and evacuated before
13.00

23.00
10.00
11.00
12.00

14.00
15.00
16.00
17.00
18.00
19.00
20.00
21.00
22.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
0.00

of 1.5 m for dis- the system can be started again. This

time mounting, cleaning cost effective maintenance work is
and maintenance is inapplicable using a falling-film-chiller.
necessary.” With this In figure 4 the advantages and dis-
that the PHE ice water plant needs special recommendation the falling-film-chiller advantages of the compared systems are
control features and a careful operation needs less floor space. shown in one table.
(according to the water temperature near Experience in the dairy industry has
freezing point). It has to be secured, that shown that PHE have to be cleaned A concept for ice water system should look
the water temperature on the waterside of regularly so that they don‘t lose their like following:
the plates never undergoes 0.5 °C. Suction capacity due to fouling on the plates. This is
■ A: Storage capacity < 2000 kWh
pressure control is recommended. The a very cost effective and time consuming
sample of a load profile for
suction pressure regulator has to have an procedure because the cleaning process
a combined ice store direct chiller:
accuracy of 0.25 °C (at the ice water has to be done generally by a specialised
Pre-chiller as BUCOdelot falling-film-
probe). A regulation valve is necessary.” company. Also, the refrigeration system
chiller is mounted on a BUCO BIC which
In figure 3 investment costs of PHE must be evacuated, deformed plates
takes the peak-loads in an ice-storage
and falling-film-
system (figure 5 + 6)
chiller over the used Figure 8: BEE arrangement
capacity range are ■ B: Storage capacity > 2000 kWh
compared. It is Pre-chiller as BUCOdelot falling-film-
obvious that using chiller BWP mounted on one tank, peak
PHE requires higher capacity from BUCOdelot BEE ice-store
investment for con- (figure 7 + 8).
trols and valves if the
recommendation of
the manufacturers Zusammenfassung
are followed. In all
cases the BUCOdelot
falling-film-chiller is
available at lower
D er Autor beschreibt neue wirt-
schaftliche Konzepte zur Eis-
wasserbereitung in Molkereien. ❑
investment costs.
Another argument
against the falling-
film-chiller with Résumé
respect to bigger
dimensions is not
true if the recom-
mendation of the
L ’auteur décrit de nouveaux projets
industriels concernant la produc-
tion d’eau glacée dans les laiteries. ❑
manufacturers are
followed which says: