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Perfect freshness for fruit and vegetables

Line of Busi-ness:

Industrial Refrigeration

Application: Fruit and Vegetable Cooling

Country / City: Germany / Kehl

Fluid: NH3, Glycol

Product: Wall/ceiling air cooler GGHF,Wall/ceiling air cooler GGN

Transportation and logistics for fresh fruit andvegetables make considerable demands ofstorage and cooling systems: The preciousproducts must be cooled and stored at the op-timum temperature and humidity in order toretain their freshness, tasty appearance andalso their specific aroma. Internationally suc-cessful logistics company Gartner KG, whosehead office is in Lambach, Austria, has metthis challenge head on. Gartner equipped itsbranch in Kehl in southern Germany, whereits comprehensive range of fruit and vegeta-bles that have been imported from France andSpain are stored, with Güntner air coolers: Ahall containing five cooling boxes and a large-scale area storage facility were planned by en-gineering office KWN Engineering GmbH andimplemented by Schulz Kälte- und Klimatech-nik GmbH from Heddesheim.

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Efficient coolant system

KWN Engineering GmbH planned a coolantsystem with NH3 liquid chillers with floodedoperation and evaporative condensers for thecooling rooms with a total of five individualcooling boxes and for the area storage facili-ty for storing all incoming goods. Since NH3 isa natural, energy-efficient refrigerant, this didnot just make a contribution to protecting theenvironment but also led to a reduction in op-erating costs. Due to suitable subdivision intodifferent cooling units, Gartner KG can reducecosts even further by means of partial load op-eration.

Economical cooling with the GGHF

The equipment in the cooling rooms was cal-culated for storing sensitive products such asasparagus and strawberries, and for room tem-peratures of between -0.5 and +2 °C in cool-ing boxes 1 and 2 and for room temperature of+2 to +4 °C in cooling boxes 3 to 5. Each indi-vidual cooling room was equipped with specialversions of the Güntner GGHF wall/ceiling aircooler, the design of which is oriented to thespecific room and storage requirements.

Provision of the Güntner air cooler for installation

A total of 20 S-GGHF units are used over a

total area of 2531.5 m2. The powerful wall/ceiling air coolers are outstanding because oftheir high heat absorption over a small heatexchanger surface, and provide economicalroom cooling. The output can also be increasedby approximately 10 % using the speed-con-trolled air coolers with the system operating atfull load and at the maximum outside temper-ature.

Quality assurance and hygiene

Depending on the room size, which ranges

from 274 m2 in cooling box 1 to 941 m2 incooling box 3, two, four or six S-GGHF unitswith different sized cooling boxes and six, eightor ten optional axial fans were installed inthe cooling boxes. The axial fans provide largequantities of air and excellent efficiency foreven air distribution in the entire cooling area.Moisture accumulation that would affect qual-ity does not occur in spite of the high humid-ity. Thermal short-circuits and heat accumula-tion are also effectively prevented. The throwdistance of the fans can also be increased andthe air volume flow meaningfully directed byinstalling the Güntner Streamer. The specialdrip tray design with sloping drain preventscondensation from forming or dirty water fromgathering in the corners of the tray: This pro-vides extremely good hygiene, and keeps thecost of cleaning and maintenance down.

Speed-controlled air cooler in area storagefacility

An essential requirement was therefore met,since air coolers in fruit and vegetable dis-tribution storage facilities usually have tocomply with considerable demands. The ser-vice-friendliness of the arrangement is also ex-tremely important, since the air coolers mayneed cleaning at frequent intervals because offrequently-occurring soiling caused by card-board packaging or soil. All S-GGHF are im-pinged with propylene glycol refrigerant 38 %(inlet -8 °C, outlet -4 °C). In order to provide op-timum adaptation to the cooled products, eachunit has two speeds. Defrosting takes placein cooling boxes 3 to 5 via the refrigerant orby means of ambient air defrosting, and us-ing electric heating elements in cooling boxes

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1 and 2 if required. Outside the cooling boxes,15 highly-efficient Güntner S-GGHF wall/ceil-ing air coolers ensure that the entire hall is uni-formly cooled.

Service-friendly arrangement of theair coolers in the area storage facility

Large-area cooling with the GGN

The area storage facility at Gartner AG at theKehl site is in a separate hall and has an area

of 4,121 m2. The large area is used to cool thesupplied goods, which are brought in at ap-proximately +10 °C and cooled to +2/+4 °Cover 16 hours. The area storage facility is de-signed for the storage of 720,000 kg of bothasparagus and strawberries. Twelve Güntner S-GGN wall/ceiling coolers are used to cool theprecious products. The GGN model series wasspecially developed for deep freeze rooms andlarge cooling rooms, and therefore has a hori-zontal air intake. Propylene glycol 38 % is alsoused as the refrigerant in this case.

View of service and maintenance corridor in area storage facility.

Gartner has a total cooling area of 6,652.5 m2

at the Kehl site, where stable room temper-atures and therefore optimum fruit and veg-etable quality are provided with some 872 kWof cooling power.

High bay store cooling box 1 with Streamers

Gartner KG: "The World of Transport"

The company uses a modern fleet of truckswith low-emission transporters, which do notexceed an average vehicle age of two years. Thecompany’s range of services includes refriger-ated and tarpaulin-covered shipments, vehicleshipments, chemical shipments, warehouse lo-gistics and sales. The branch in Kehl, south-ern Germany, has special equipment for stor-ing and distributing fruit and vegetable ship-ments from France and Spain.