Global Food Delivery Company,
The Midlands

The Brief

Due to the expansion of their UK market, the company moved into a new high quality warehouse facility. Consisting of 10,000 sqft of offices and 225,000 sqft of warehouse accommodation, the new vast production building stands at a height of 13.25m.

Their model is centred on the concept of providing customers with high quality and fresh products quickly, therefore, it was essential that the new premises contained a highly efficient and state-of-the-art refrigeration/cooling system.

The Solution

Working closely with the client, JD designed the scheme based around a central glycol system comprising of two air cooled chillers that support a ringmain of chilled glycol to the various cooling loads.

Production Area – Cooling is carried out using externally mounted AHUs complete with glycol cooling coils. In total the site is served by four AHUs, each the size of a double-decker bus.

Fabric Duct System – Maintaining the desired air velocity and deltaT within the insulated envelope would not have been possible without the integration of a newly installed fabric duct system. This delivers draft-free, evenly distributed chilled air to achieve the desired room condition whilst not compromising on personnel comfort.

Electrical – New purpose built electrical control panels were provided for all new glycol coolers, controlling cooler fans and valve operation. All interconnecting wiring and refrigeration pipework between the control panels and cooler fans, control valves, pumps and sensors/switches were also installed.

Chilled Intake / Dispatch Area – A 2⁰C holding area is served using four ceiling mounted draw-through coolers. The cooling capacity is provided by the two 600 kW air cooled chillers.

Blast and Holding Freezer – A central CO₂ compressor pack integrated into the chilled glycol ring allows CO₂ to operate as a subcritical direct expansion system. The pack provides the cooling within the two purpose built blast freezers via floor standing coolers (two per chamber) and ceiling mounted coolers within the holding freezer.

The design of the freezing process was a critical stage of the project. We had to calculate the theoretical cooling times and associated cooling capacities to suit the two blast chambers within the holding freezer. These are capable of reducing 40,000kg of water pouches in 24 hours.

After freezing, the pouches are stored within the main holding freezer before being used within the meal packages.