[Gasification] Gasification or Pyrolysis + Absorption Chiller for Fruit

[Kelly Burnham]

Tom,
If memory serves me correctly an air-cooled chiller will require about 1.20
kW/Ton R and the lower temp you need the more ponies you will require, but
it's still better than an ABS chiller with a COP of less than 1.0, so it's
really only economical where you have lots of free (low cost) steam when
there's a demand for cooling.  I've been involved several large (100's to
1000's) ton ABS chiller plants which were all steam driven, physically
large and expensive (lots of copper & cupro-nickel tubes).  Due to the fact
that you need to dissipate heat from refrigeration as well as the
absorption process, you'll also need lots of water and and big cooling
towers.

Typically in orchard cooling it's a batch process which does not run 24/7 -
the cooling system is used when the fruit is picked (ripened) and the
hydro-cooler sits for the rest of the year, so it only works for high-value
fruit crops.  When the weather and markets are aligned the numbers can work
really well for fruit cooling, (like here around Kelowna).  A grower can
see returns in excess of $30k per acre for premium (export grade) cherries,
so a 300 acre farm can do really well. These guys can afford to have $1M
(or more) tied-up in a chiller/hydro-cooler system that only runs for two
weeks out of a whole year.

Kelly


On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 9:19 AM, Tom Miles <tmiles at trmiles.com> wrote:

> Kelly,
>
>
>
> Very helpful. If you are in an environment with high electricity prices is
> it worth considering getting to 40F with an absorption chiller and going
> further with the electro-mechanical chiller? Or does the capital cost kill
> it?
>
>
>
> Put another way, would it be better to us your Proton unit (
> http://www.protonpower.com/ ) to generate electricity to drive an
> electromechanical chiller, or to use the heat to pre-chill and power to
> finish? How much refrigeration can you produce from the 250 kWe Proton
> using either method?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> Tom
>
>
>
> *From:* Gasification [mailto:gasification-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org]
> *On Behalf Of *Kelly Burnham
> *Sent:* Monday, August 25, 2014 8:52 AM
> *To:* Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification
> *Subject:* Re: [Gasification] Gasification or Pyrolysis + Absorption
> Chiller for Fruit
>
>
>
> Tom,
> There might be an issue with getting down to 36F with an absorption
> machine.  We sold many steam fired abs chillers at Trane and the best we
> could do was 40F, which was better than the catalogue, so we were going
> lower than the manufacturer said we could.
>
> We.sold a few hydro-cooler chillers for cherries here in the Okanagan and
> our target LWT was around 30F. We found the best way to get there was
> a.packaged air-cooled eletro-mechanical (vapour cycle) chiller.
>
> My 2bits.
>
> Kelly
>
> On Aug 14, 2014 9:09 AM, "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com> wrote:
>
> In the tropics there are needs for making char and cooling fruit. Has
> anyone coupled a small pyrolyzer or gasifier up with a boiler and an
> absorption chiller? What sizes and capacities make sense? We’re looking at
> a fuel input of 2-3 tpd. How much char can I make and what practical
> refrigeration capacity can I generate? I am assuming that the chiller can
> get down to about 36 F (2 C). The cooler the better.
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> Tom
>
>
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-- 
Kelly Burnham
M: +1 (250) 878-4094
Proton Power Bioenergy Inc.
3625 Water Road
Kelowna, BC Canada V1W 4G2

 <http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/kelly-burnham/7/a04/796/>
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