Green, Sustainable, Energy Efficient, Cost

Effective Refrigerated Storage Facilities

By
Bryan R. Becker, Ph.D., P.E.
Brian A. Fricke, Ph.D.

Mechanical Engineering
University of Missouri Kansas City
Introduction
Refrigerated warehouses provide a vital link in
the cold chain from the farmer to the consumer

Refrigerated warehouses operate at -10 to +40F
(-25 to +5C)

Electrical energy is used to operate refrigeration
equipment

Introduction
Refrigerated warehouses are significant energy
consumers

USDA (2006) estimates US refrigerated storage
capacity at 3.21 billion ft
3
(90.9 million m
3
) and
increasing at the rate of 1% per year

DOE (1999) estimates energy consumption of
US cold stores to be 17 billion kWh per year
Project Goal
Increased energy conservation and
environmental stewardship in the refrigerated
warehouse industry

Development of a comprehensive best practices
GreenGuide for engineers, contractors, facility
owners and operators

Outreach Program
A Green, Sustainable, Energy Efficient
Refrigerated Storage Facility
Maintains a safe and appropriate environment for the
storage of perishable food items

Limits its impact on the Earths natural resources
including both energy and water

Employ elegant, simple, passive design and engineering
solutions

Annual refrigeration loads are reduced to the minimum
A Green, Sustainable, Energy Efficient
Refrigerated Storage Facility

Refrigeration equipment will operate at high energy
efficiency
Designed and constructed to be robust
Maintainable with minimal effort

Environmentally friendly refrigerants that minimize:
Ozone depletion potential
Global warming potential
Annual energy consumption

Typical Facility Layout
Typical Facilities
Contents of the GreenGuide
Sustainable Structure Design

Refrigeration System Design

Natural Refrigerants

Load Calculations

Energy Use and Facility Management
Sustainable Structure Design
General layout and siting
Utilizing the available local natural environment to benefit the facility
Reducing the facilitys impact on the environment
Building orientation and microclimate; building configuration
End-user activities
Traffic flow analysis to optimize material handling systems

Specific aspects of building envelope
Walls, roofs, floors, and doors
Environmentally preferable building materials
Insulation
Vapor retarder
Infiltration reduction
Thermal mass
Cool (high albedo) exteriors
Passive solar technologies.

Building Orientation and Microclimate
Cold stores are usually oriented to present an
aesthetically pleasing faade
Little or no regard for the microclimate

Orienting the refrigerated dock so that it does
not face into the prevailing wind will greatly
reduce:
Infiltration
Refrigeration load
Defrost frequency
Energy costs
Infiltration
Warm, moist ambient air entering the refrigerated facility
Sensible and latent heat loads (5 seconds)
Effects of Infiltration

Doors and Infiltration
Doors linked directly to productivity and operational
cost
Infiltration: ~50% of the total refrigeration load
Minimize energy losses
Minimize door opening/closing cycles
Maximize door opening/closing speeds
Minimize door opening size
Heated door seals
Dock-to-truck seals
Infiltration reduction devices: air curtains, vestibules, fast
acting doors
Air Curtain
Fast-Acting
Door
Vestibule
Water Vapor Transmission
Building envelope must prevent water vapor migration
from outside to inside

Failure to prevent water vapor migration results in:
Increased energy cost (more defrost cycles)
Diminished insulating effect
Structural damage
Biological growth
Ice formation
Vapor Retarder
Prevents moisture migration

Located on the warm side of
the insulation

Ensures water vapor pressure
remains lower than saturation
pressure throughout the wall

Must encompass the entire
facility
No discontinuities
Defective Vapor Retarder
Walls, Ceilings and Insulation
Wall/ceiling materials must be of increasing
permeability toward the cold interior

Moisture that enters wall from outside will migrate
to the evaporator surface

Prevents moisture from becoming trapped within
wall

Prevents condensation and ice formation within wall

Cool Roofs
50,000 ft
2
roof results in a significant solar load
Cool Roofs can cut solar loads by up to 20%
Reflectance 0.70 and Emittance 0.75
EPDM
single-ply
173 F
Cool coating
over BUR
108 F
Noon in Sacramento, CA, 89F
Solar Roof
50,000 ft
2
roof
provides an excellent
opportunity to utilize
roof-mounted
photovoltaic cells
Refrigerated Dock Design
During loading and unloading of refrigerated trucks, significant
energy savings can be harvested by:
Providing an extended overhanging roof to shade the
truck, reducing its solar load


Using insulated sealing cushions to reduce infiltration
between the truck and the dock door
Refrigeration System Design
Energy required for refrigeration constitutes the
major cost of operating a refrigerated storage
facility
Energy efficient refrigeration technologies and
operating strategies
Efficient piping design to minimize P
Use high efficiency motors and variable
speed drives (compressors, evaporator
and condenser fans, fluid pumps)
Natural Refrigerants
Ammonia (R-717)
Ozone depletion potential, ODP = 0
No global warming potential, GWP = 0
Carbon Dioxide (R-744)
Ozone depletion potential, ODP = 0
Negligible global warming potential, GWP = 1
Ammonia/Carbon Dioxide Cascade Systems
Large low-temperature industrial systems (-30C to -50C)
Ammonia (high cascade) confined to machine room
Carbon dioxide (low cascade) circulated to storage spaces and production
areas, where food is being processed and frozen
In case of an ammonia leak, neither the staff nor the food is affected
Load Calculations
Detailed, comprehensive load calculations rather than peak load
Seasonal, hour-by-hour refrigeration load, based on local weather data
Effects of the diurnal cycle as well as weekends and holidays
Time-dependent product loads, both sensible and latent
Sensible heat load transmitted through walls, roof and floor
Sensible and latent heat loads due to infiltration through doors and docks
Incremental sizing of compressors, evaporators and
condensers to track variations in the refrigeration load

Computer-based energy management systems to control
the incremental refrigeration equipment
Energy Use and Facility Management
Establish and maintain an energy accounting system
Monitor how and where energy is being used

Computer-based energy management system

Utility invoices, printouts from time of use meters, recordings
of temperature and relative humidity, submetered data.

Database of past energy usage

Identify energy conservation opportunities

Commissioning and periodic re-commissioning
Commissioning
Verify performance of each system versus design specifications
Check refrigeration system for leaks prior to charging with refrigerant.
Check vapor retarder seals for integrity
Check floor heating system, door threshold heaters and all trace heating
Check lighting and emergency lighting
Check fire/smoke detection systems/refrigerant leak sensors
Check manual and automatic doors for their operation

Verify refrigeration equipment start-up procedure and
temperature pull-down rate
Ensure that thermal expansion and contraction does not become a
problem

Thermographic Scan
Thermographic Scan
Infrared thermal imaging survey

Qualitative measure of the thermal performance
of the insulated envelope

Identify areas of high or low thermal emission


Example Thermgraphic Scans

Roof/Wall Junction
Loading Dock
Energy Strategies and Alternatives
Use hot gas from compressor discharge for heating
Under-floor heating
Space heating of offices, shops and docks in the winter
Set the temperature of refrigerated storage facilities only as low
as required
Remove lamps or reduce lamp wattage in the refrigerated space
Minimize the use of material handling equipment which is stored
outside and used inside
Minimize evaporator defrost time and frequency
Provide evaporator fan controls (on/off and/or variable speed)
Only load cold product into the storage facility

Design Essentials for Refrigerated
Storage Facilities

This book provides engineers in the food refrigeration industry with a
comprehensive design guide that addresses the various issues surrounding the
design of refrigerated storage facilities. The design guide covers those areas
where ASHRAE is uniquely qualified, and includes a thorough treatment of
the current, established trends in refrigerated facility design. Chapter topics
include storage facility specifications, structure design, and management. This
guide is the result of ASHRAE Research Project 1214.


AUTHORS: Bryan Becker, Ph.D., P.E.; Brian Fricke, Ph.D.
ISBN/ISSN: 1-931862-74-5
NO. OF PAGES: 192
PUBLISH DATE: 2005
PUBLISHER: ASHRAE
UNITS: Dual

Support Structure
Performance of the insulated envelope, especially joints,
depends upon the deflection of the support structure:
Snow, wind, rain, seismic loads
Mechanical equipment: evaporators, piping, ice/frost loads

Two basic refrigerated facility construction techniques:
External frame/internal insulation
Internal frame/external insulation

External Frame/Internal Insulation
Internal Frame/External Insulation
Water Vapor Transmission
Due to vapor pressure difference across the insulated envelope.
Condensation begins when water vapor pressure and saturation
pressure, based on the temperature, are equal.
Frost Heaving
Occurs when ground below a cold store freezes
Moisture in the ground freezes and expands
Floor buckles
Support columns move, damaging roof and support structure
Can be prevented with under floor heating system
Prevent the subsoil from freezing
A note about insulated floors:
Insulation does not inhibit heat flow it only slows the rate
of heat transfer
An insulated floor may be damaged by frost heave
Floor Heating: Liquid Circulation
Venting
Substantial indoor/outdoor pressure
differentials
Caused by evaporator defrosting, warm product
influx, facility cool-down, rapid barometric
pressure change
Can result in movement of insulated panels,
disruption of vapor retarders, structural damage
Alleviated by inflow/outflow hinged vent pairs
(not on opposing walls)
Effects of Inadequate Venting