The food industry has seen an explosion in growth. In this episode, host Mike Murphy is joined by Josh Paikada, strategic business development manager for Drive Products with an emphasis on infrastructure, to discuss industrial cold storage. Tune in to hear Josh explain the recent growth in the food industry, concerns cold storage facilities face, and how ABB can help in refrigerator plants.
Learn more about ABB Food Industry Products
The food industry has seen an explosion in growth. In this episode, host Mike Murphy is joined by Josh Paikada, strategic business development manager for Drive Products with an emphasis on infrastructure, to discuss industrial cold storage. Tune in to hear Josh explain the recent growth in the food industry, concerns cold storage facilities face, and how ABB can help in refrigerator plants.
Learn more about ABB Food Industry Products
Welcome to the ABB Solutions Podcast where we address challenges faced in our industry. I'm your host, Mike Murphy. Today we have Josh Paikada, Strategic Business Development Manager for Drive products with a focus on infrastructure. Josh is here to speak with us on Industrial Cold Storage. Josh, welcome.
Josh Paikada:Thank you, Mike, for having me here in this podcast. And it is a very great pleasure to introduce ABB solutions for improving cold storage performance to the audience.
Mike Murphy:Yeah, it's great having you here. Okay, Josh, we all know the food industry is seeing an explosion in growth. Can you share with us some of the reasons why?
Josh Paikada:You are right, Mike. Recent market research reports indicate that the global market for refrigerated cold stores, is at around 100 billion US dollars. Of this, the North American market share itself is around 36% That is $36 billion dollars. This market is expected to expand at an annual growth rate in excess of 10% until 2028. Some factors contributing
to this growth are:increased movement of people to urban areas, growth in their disposable income, increasing demand for ready to eat products, and unprecedented growth in organized retail sectors in emerging economies, which we are currently seeing, and especially growth of companies like Amazon, Walmart, etc., stringent regulations governing the production and supply of temperature sensitive products. Coupled with that, you know, the increasing ambient temperatures across the world is putting a pressure on having cold stores built up around the world to preserve food and food products, pricing automation in refrigerated warehouses, food security around the world, focus on reduction in end to end wastage and energy efficiency.
Mike Murphy:Okay, so what concerns the cold storage facilities face?
Josh Paikada:The key challenges in the cold storage market are the increasing control and monitoring requirements. And these generally arise from stringent government regulations regarding food safety. And this relates to monitoring the temperature and ensuring stable temperatures throughout the cold chain. The second point is cost pressures. And this is leading to consolidation of the cold storage industry and they're resorting to automation. Many companies today are investing now in automated storage and retrieval systems. Then there is the rising awareness about corporate social responsibility, for example, related to climate change, use of renewable energy and ensuring safety etc. Having said this, I would say the biggest challenge for the industry is to maintain the temperature throughout the cold chain. And this is especially challenging in emerging economies where logistics systems are not that well developed.
Mike Murphy:Okay, what are some applications where you will see our products? And how can ABB help in refrigeration plants?
Josh Paikada:ABB has the right solutions for achieving stable temperatures and energy efficiency in refrigeration plants by using our variable speed drives and energy efficient models. For the focus of this podcast we will focus on variable speed drives. The refrigeration plant is a large consumer of energy. Therefore focusing on energy saving, saves costs. The applications for variable speed drives in a refrigeration plant are compressors, condensers, evaporators, and refrigerant or chilled water circulation pumps.
Mike Murphy:Okay, you mentioned a few applications. What are typical power ratings that we'll see?
Josh Paikada:Compressors are the biggest energy guzzlers in the plant. And in large cold storages. These compressor ratings can go up to 500 or even 700/750 kilowatt etc. Typically, we see compressors in the range of 300 to 500 kilowatt. Condensers, depending on the type, whether they are water cooled or air cooled, typically ranges from multiples of 7.5 to 15 kilowatt for water cooled and multiples of up to 30 kilowatt for air cooled. Evaporators are typically up to three kilowatt and mind you there are a number of them in the plant. Circulation pumps can be typically up to 15 kilowatt.
Mike Murphy:Okay, Josh, can you explain how ABB can help customers save money with these applications?
Josh Paikada:Well, that's a very interesting point Mike. In a cold store, they have applications for saving energy which are based on the speed cube affinity laws as well as proportional to speed. Compressors in the plant are typically constant outside. These are generally reciprocating or screw compressors. And the power consumed for these is proportional to the speed at which they are operating. In these compressors, we typically see an energy saving capability of approximately 15 to 20%. And remember, these are large kilowat motors, so, saving even 15 to 20% energy saves a lot of cost and these are continuously operating machines. Varying the speed of the compressors to match the heat load, allows a precise control of temperature in the cold store, without the need to have you know to be the typical high and low offset setpoints. The other applications in the plant which are evaporators, condensers and pumps, they follow speed cube affinity laws. That means, if we are able to reduce the speed by 20%, their energy consumption is only 50%. And there are often 15 to 20% design margins in the equipment itself. So, reducing a speed up to 80% and saving 50% energy is often possible. With controlling the speed of the evaporators based on temperature monitoring of the conditioned area allows a more stable temperature in the conditioned area. This results in more shelf life of the produce and reduced wastage thus adding to the bottom line of operations in addition to the cost savings in energy. Whereas controlling the speed of the condenser is based on ambient temperature reduces the load on the compressor too. So, on one hand energy consumption of the condenser itself is reduced. While on the other hand, the compressor will now give a more efficient operation.
Mike Murphy:Okay, great. That sounds like significant savings when when putting a drive on your application. So, Josh, on the topic of drives, I'm also hearing a bit on harmonics. Can you explain how harmonics can impact industrial cold storage facilities?
Josh Paikada:That is correct, Mike. Even though variable speed allows us to have better control and save energy, they also introduce harmonics into the electrical system. The effects
of harmonics are:it leads to oversizing of electrical components, switch gears and accessories, cables, transformers, etc. It also causes additional heating in these items as harmonics are not productive currents and thus leading to wastage of energy and inefficiencies. The effects of harmonics are more prominent in large kilowatt motors. So, in a cold storage, typically we will focus on compressor applications. Here is where ABB's active front end based ultra low harmonic drives come into picture. These low harmonic drives produces only three to 5% harmonic currents at the input of these drives, compared to a 45 to 50% for standard variable speed drives. So, when you say low harmonic drive, you will get a power factor of one and also a harmonic power factor of 0.99. This shows that the Ultra Low Harmonics are very efficient. Another factor we need to consider is when using standard VFDs we need to factor in a 35% oversizing for transformers and a 50% oversizing for generators due to the harmonic currents drawn. And and often cold storage must have standby generators to cater for any power blackouts. Whereas when using ultra low harmonic drives, this oversizing factor is only 10% and this is a major capital cost saving when planning new facilities. ABB's ultra low harmonic drives start from four kilowatt right up to 1500 kilowatt and above, if needed. World over, currently large kilowatt applications are already moving to using low harmonic drives to save energy while keeping harmonics in check.
Mike Murphy:Okay, it definitely sounds like the ABB ultra low harmonic drive can certainly not only save customers money but but also lowering their power consumption and harmonics. So we're gonna stop right there. That's all the time we have. Remember if you would like more information, contact your local ABB sales representative or visit us at www.abb.com. If you have any questions or ideas on additional topics for future podcasts, send us an email at US-solutions@abb.com. Thanks and have a great rest of your day.