Installer Anglo Irish Refrigeration won the 2024 IRI (Institute of Refrigeration Ireland) Heat Pump System of the Year award for a propane (R290) system from Lithuanian manufacturer Refra that was installed in a Keelings flower processing plant in the town of St. Margaret’s, Ireland.
The refrigeration/heating system in the €20 million ($21 million) facility includes an Ignis reversible R290 heat pump, a Galaxy R290 chiller, two pump stations and a buffer tank. The air-to-water heat pump provides a heating capacity of 120kW (34.1TR) at an ambient temperature of −5°C (23°F); the chiller has 380kW (108.1TR) of cooling capacity.
“The facility uses renewable or recovered heat for all production and storage areas,” said Andrew Dunwoody, Technical Manager at Anglo Irish Refrigeration, in a presentation at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit 2024. The event was organized by ATMOsphere, publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com, and held November 25-26 in Prague, Czech Republic.
“The facility uses renewable or recovered heat for all production and storage areas.”
Andrew Dunwoody, Technical Manager at Anglo Irish Refrigeration
Goals/flexibility: According to Refra, sustainability was a high priority for Keelings in selecting a heat pump.
- “Keelings wanted a natural refrigerant, so they chose R290 for the refrigeration system and the heat pump,” said Dunwoody.
- The company also required temperature flexibility throughout the facility, ranging from 2 to 22°C (35.6 to 71.6°F) without additional equipment or costs to allow changing process site applications based on seasonal demand. Mother’s Day and Easter see the highest demand for flowers, for instance.
The system: The facility operates three temperature zones: cut flower storage at 4°C (39.2°F), potted plants storage at 8°C (46.4°F) and processing floor space at 16°C (60.8°F).
- Anglo Irish Refrigeration installed the heat pump and chiller on the roof, with all circuits containing less than 13kg of R290.
- No propane enters the facility. An ethylene glycol mix circulates inside the building in a four-pipe system to warm or cool specific areas.
- “We constantly recover heat off of the condenser side of the refrigeration system to supply most of the heating load,” Dunwoody said, adding that the heat pump kicks in to support the system in cold weather.
Costs/benefits: To meet its f-gas phase-out goals, Keelings was willing to pay a higher capital cost for the system.
- “The initial cost was 40% higher than an f-gas [refrigeration] solution, but the benefit is having the heating and cooling in one system,” Dunwoody said.
- In the cost comparison, Anglo Irish Refrigeration did not account for the initial costs of a conventional heating system. “If you factor that in, there probably was not a lot of difference in costs,” Dunwoody noted.
- The new facility, with an 8,500m2 (91,500ft2) footprint, allows the processing company to double its flower operations in the next seven years, according to Keelings.
Quotable: “The aim of our flower business is to bring joy,” said Caroline Keeling, CEO of Keelings. “This fantastic new facility enables us to deliver fresher, brighter, and longer-lasting flowers and plants to the people of Ireland. I’m delighted [with] the building.”
