Food processing plants are among America’s biggest consumers of refrigeration power.
When you walk into the local grocery store and enjoy the blast of cool, conditioned air, you know you’re stepping into an environment with plenty of refrigeration equipment at work. In a food processing plant, it may be necessary to have double or triple the number of refrigeration compressors.
Among businesses that rely on commercial refrigeration, few have needs as intensive as meatpacking plants.
Refrigeration must begin the instant that animal processing starts. Freezer storage must be maintained at below zero temperatures to meet all needs. Cooling, cutting, and processing call for extreme cooling at consistent levels. Bacteria can develop and spread if refrigeration lapses.
Grocery stores are unique among common neighborhood businesses for their high refrigeration needs.
Not only do grocery stores dedicate more square footage to refrigeration than the average business, but they also utilize a wider variety of refrigeration systems. For example, smaller commercial compressor units are often chained together to provide support for cooled cases and displays.
You might not think of them as farm equipment, but commercial compressors are among the most important machines on virtually any farm. Powering some of the most demanding refrigeration systems around, they are indispensable to both dairy and meat farms. The bigger the farm, the more refrigeration capacity is needed.
One unexpected outcome of the public health crisis of 2020 is that more people than ever now want to know about the topic of meat processing and packing. Meat processing is essential to the American diet and to the agricultural supply chain, yet few people truly have a deep understanding of the details.
Dairy farming is one of the most complex supply chains in modern agriculture.
Milk begins to go bad at any temperature above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It is so sensitive to the air around it that even in one of the most thoroughly refrigerated environments, the grocery store, it is still important for personnel not to stack dairy products too high in display cases.
You might not think about it much, but bananas have changed a lot in the last few centuries!
Today’s sweet yellow bananas are a relatively recent development. Early bananas were green or red. They could be prepared using a wide range of cooking methods. They were also much smaller than the bananas on grocery store shelves today: Often less than half the size of sweet yellow banana.
As winter rolls in, your commercial compressor has a whole new job to do.
Because of what a compressor does – compress refrigerant gas – it’s easy to think of it in terms of keeping your building cool. In warmer climates, such as South Texas and Florida, plenty of time and attention go to this function every year.
Depending on your climate, you probably think about heating or cooling first when you think about your commercial HVAC system. That said, the V – ventilation – is just as important. Poor ventilation can cause real discomfort among employees, tenants, or anyone else who relies on your building.
Whether you are running a refrigeration system or commercial air conditioning, a compressor unit is essential to all cooling functions. The compressor is the key component that enables refrigerant gas to move through the system. If it fails, the entire cooling system comes to a stop – no matter the details.
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