Whether it is a food manufacturer following a plant ammonia leak, a food supplier relocating its freezer to a larger site, or an asphalt plant facing a potential temperature crisis, and emergency — or even a planned, temporary disruption — can disrupt business as usual. Companies in the process industries should consider their cooling and cold storage needs before demand strikes to keep their businesses thriving and minimize losses.

Review of cooling towers for industrial cooling applications using our annual roundup.

The importance of cold storage for certain chemical products, particularly organic peroxides, hit the headlines in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. When a plant outside Houston was flooded and lost power, it also lost its cold storage for the organic peroxide products produced at the site. 

Industrial process cooling equipment such as cooling towers or chillers can corrode before they are installed or while they are temporarily laid up for the season. This is especially so if equipment is exposed to harsh outdoor conditions during shipping or storage.

Industrial buildings are good candidates for evaporative cooling. The facilities are typically quite large — with tens of thousands of square feet — and often have high roof structures (more than 30 feet) to provide crane clearance, manufacturing equipment clearance and racking systems.

One of my favorite things in my early days of publishing was getting a new at-a-glance planner each December. Part calendar, address book and part personal guidebook, each new calendar offered smooth, unmarked pages full of potential.

A technique that substituted a reusable liquid refrigerant in place of evaporative-water cooling towers when outside temperatures are low enough to make that feasible earned Sandia National Laboratories engineers and others a Department of Energy environmental award.

Endress+Hauser plans to build a 100,000 ft² calibration, repair and training space in Pearland, Texas. Construction is expected to begin in 2019 and be complete by the end of 2020.

A test code for air-cooled fluid coolers — more commonly referred to as dry coolers — has been published by Houston-based Cooling Technology Institute. Its application is limited to the sensible cooling of water, aqueous glycol solutions and other homogeneous, single-phase process fluids. ATC-105DS applies to testing in both field and laboratory settings.

A large containerboard mill located in southern Mississippi needed to replace the cooling tower used for its electrical rooms, along with an additional tower that supplied comfort air to the building’s offices. Both were the classic metal-clad design framed with wood and were beginning to disintegrate.

The Vertex evaporative condenser reduces installation costs by 30 percent, says the manufacturer. The evaporative condenser design allows the upper part to be aligned to the lower section in less than 15 minutes per cell.

Opteon XL41 (R-454B) refrigerant, a low global warming potential (GWP) replacement for R-410A, was selected by Johnson Controls for its York YLAA scroll chiller platform in Europe. Reasons cited for the selection include Opteon XL41’s capacity ranging of 190 to 530 kW.

A provider of flow, level and volume controls for industrial process industries enhanced website. Aurora, Ill.-based Magnetrol incorporated customer feedback in its redesign.

Danfoss acquired AAIM Controls Inc., a supplier of custom-designed regulation and control automation solutions for the industrial refrigeration market.  The acquisition helps position Danfoss position as a systems provider within industrial refrigeration, says the company.

An updated online heat load calculator allows users to determine cooling requirements for their specific enclosure. The online tool is designed to help users size enclosure cooling systems.

Cold Chain Integrity (CCI), a United Dairy Farmers company, will build a $20 million cold storage facility in Erlanger, Ky. The project is expected to create 50 full-time jobs.

Lineage Cool Port Oakland (Cool Port), a cold storage and logistics facility set on 25 acres in Oakland, Calif., will serve as a hub for temperature-controlled cargo transitioning through Northern California. It includes 20,000 pallet positions, three blast cells and a 100,000 ft², high-cube, multi-temperature storage environment.

Preferred Freezer Services (PFS) opened a cold storage warehouse in Kearny, N.J., the company’s ninth such facility in the New Jersey area.

Design-build firm A M King completed the first baking facility for London-based Bakkavor in the United States. The plant, in Charlotte, N.C., supplies prepared foods to local and regional grocery chains.

Almark Foods opened a 115,000 ft² production facility in Yuma, Ariz. The plant, which produces peeled, hard-boiled eggs, was designed and constructed by Stellar, a fully integrated design-build firm.

Mycom screw compressor packages include Mypro Touch+ control panel. Features such as a simple icon menu interface, touchpanel control and USB interface simplify compressor control. The control panel can monitor, control and display basic system equipment such as compressor vibration sensors, motor RTD temperatures, vessel levels or chillers.

Plenty Backflush Filter is designed to keep processes running without manual intervention. Designed specifically for applications on water systems, the filter is offered in stainless steel or cast iron housings in sizes to suit most applications.

Energy efficiency is particularly important in data center cooling applications. With continuous cooling demand, each incremental reduction in power consumption reduces energy bills. 

Features of the Camseal forged ball valves include zero body, seat and stem leakage on stand-alone and actuated valves.

Line of industrial refrigeration products leverages the company’s experience with CO₂ in the commercial market for industrial use. The new products are intended to support the effort to reduce ammonia in the cold storage space.

Model EC impellers are suited for air-moving applications, including cooling of motor controls, electronics, power converter cabinets and modular air conditioners.

Rather than blasting cold air at food product and hoping some airflow gets to the center of the pallet stacks, QuickFreeze uses patented technology to pull air through the product for fast, consistent and predictable freezing, says the company.