Report on industrial visit conducted at

EURO MARINE

Submitted by, Nikhil P, 8436, S8 ME, Marian engineering college.

History:
The company, Euro Marine Products Limited, was originally incorporated as a private limited company on 22nd March, 1991 by Mr. S. Andrews and Mr. Antony George. The company was subsequently converted into a public limited company on 13th September, 1994. The company in November 1991 initially started its operations out of a leased plant at Quilon and in February 1993 the Company set up an integrated marine food processing unit at Puthenthope, Trivandrum, Kerala for processing shrimps, lobster, squids, cuttlefish, octopus, crabs, seer fish and other fish varieties. The first phase of the existing facility has been set up at a cost of Rs.106.00 lakhs which was financed through a term loan from Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) aggregating Rs.70.50 lakhs, State Subsidy of Rs.6.00 lakhs and promoters contribution at Rs.29.50 lakhs. The second phase of the existing facilities was set up in December 1993 at a cost of Rs.30.30 lakhs which was financed through a KSIDC term loan aggregating to Rs.18 lakhs, State Subsidy of Rs.2.50 lakhs, internal accruals to the extent of Rs.4.50 lakhs and Promoters contribution of Rs.5.30 lakhs. The existing infrastructure of the company include 1.44 acres of land in freehold basis, a processing unit with a built up area of 8500 square feet with two plate freezers of 5 tons each, two tunnel freezers of 7.50 tons each, a matching cold storage of 150 tons, a fleet comprising of 4 insulated vans, 2 LCVs and a standby generator of capacity 160 KVA.

Technical reviews:
The type of refrigeration system used in Euro Marine products limited is of vapour compression type. The main advantages of using such type of system are:

Relatively inexpensive. Can be driven directly using mechanical energy (water, car/truck motor) or with electrical energy. Efficient up to 60% of Carnot's theoretical limit

The suction pipe of vapour compression system is insulated this is to minimize sweating of the air around the pipe. When the air comes in contact with a cool surface, its water vapor condenses. Insulation material used is Aluminium and in between a material called PUFF is also used.

Vapour compression system:

Here the refrigerant used is ammonia. A vapour compression refrigeration system uses a refrigerant sealed in an airtight and leak proof mechanism. The refrigerant is circulated through the system and it undergoes a no of changes in its state while passing through various components of the system. Each such change in the state of vapour is called a process. The process of repetition of a similar order of operation is called a cycle. The compression cycle is given this name because it is the compression of the refrigerant by the compressor which permits transfer of heat energy. The refrigerant absorbs that from one place and release it to another place. In other words the compressor is used to put the heat laden refrigerant vapour in such a condition that it may dispute the heat it absorbed at low pressure from the refrigerated space, to an easily available cooling medium. Most of the modern refrigerators work on this cycle. In its simplest form there are four fundamental operations require to complete one cycle. Compression Condensation Expansion Vaporization Compression: The low pressure vapor in dry state is drawn from the evaporator during the suction stroke of the compressor. During compression stroke the pressure and temperature increase until vapor temperature is greater than the temperature of condenser cooling medium. Condensation: When the high pressure refrigerant vapor enters the condenser heat flows from condenser to cooling medium thus allowing the vaporized refrigerant to return to liquid state. Expansion: After condenser the liquid refrigerant is stored in the liquid receiver until needed. From the receiver it passes through an expansion valve where the pressure is reduced sufficiently to allow the vaporization of liquid a low temperature of about -10C. Vaporization: The low pressure refrigerant vapour after expansion in the expansion valve enters the evaporator or refrigerated space where a considerable amount of heat is absorbed by it and refrigeration is furnished. There are two sections in Euro Marine Products Limited one dealing with production of ice flakes and the other in cold storage of marine food products. They use two cylinder single stage vapour compression system in producing ice flakes. The schematic diagram of two cylinder single stage vapour compression system is shown

From the cold water tank the water is delivered partly directly to the scale of the batching plant and partly to the flake ice plants. Ice plants are installed inside of 8-ft.container. All flake ice plants are equipped with ice makers with non-rotating drums avoiding the danger of leakage through a shaft-seal. The flake ice is removed by ice removal tools on the inside of the drum. The optimum ice thickness is 1.5 mm which guarantees the highest possible output and the shortest possible mixing and melting time inside the mixer. The flake ice is sub-cooled to approx. - 7C thus remaining chilled during storage and transportation. The cold storage is done by four cylinder two stage vapour compression system. In between an intercooler is used. The type of condenser system used is of two kinds 1. Plate type condenser system: The plate-and-frame heat exchanger consists of
numerous plates that are gasketed in such a way that when these plates are bolted together one of the fluids flows between two of the plates and the other fluid between the pairs of adjacent plates. The plates are corrugated with a herringbone pattern that physically strengthens the plates and also promotes turbulence of the fluids, providing excellent convection heat-transfer coefficients. This type of heat exchanger is appealing to such food industries as dairies because at the end of a work shift the bolts holding the plates in position can be

loosened,

permitting

access

to

all

surfaces

for

cleaning.

2. Coil type evaporator system:

The evaporator coil is a series of piping connected to a furnace or air handler that blows indoor air across it, causing the coil to absorb heat from the air. The cooled air is then delivered to the house through ducting. The refrigerant then flows back to the compressor where the cycle starts over again.