Industries: Processed Food

Thermax’s energy-efficient cooling solution is a part of the refrigeration plant in one of India’s leading seafood exporters, keeping the processed catch fresh for export. The uninterrupted productivity and exemplary performance of the solution have resulted in customer delight and strengthened our partnership with the company.   

The company is well-known in the seafood processing industry for its premium quality of production and storage processes. The global popularity of the company is attributed to its world-class infrastructure, industry best practices and stringent safety standards.

On the look for energy conserving solution

The seafood exporter was setting up a new fish processing plant at Mangalore, India exclusively to process groundfish (Surimi). The plant was also to serve as an allied cold storage facility. While seeking an efficient cooling solution for the refrigeration facility, the company was determined to deploy one that will also systematically conserve power, space and water.  

Thermax’s proven track record in cooling refrigeration units

As the new plant was a greenfield premium project, the customer was looking to partner with an experienced market leader for commissioning the cooling solution. Thermax’s successful history of cooling storage units combined with our impressive after-sales service instigated the seafood exporter to collaborate with us. After studying the requirements of the storage facility, our experts suggested evaporative condenser as the one-point solution for the company’s cooling demands. 

Capturing freshness effectively

In the seafood industry, effective storage of the processed catch and preventing it from perishing is the most crucial process. The processed fish is subjected to various degrees of chilling in a variety of utilities such as blast freezer (-40 °c), blast chiller (-10°c), pre-cooler, chill room, freezer room, plate freezer and brine chiller. Refrigeration plants encapsulate the cooling utilities and cater to their cooling requirements. Such refrigeration systems are designed for continuous operation to ensure a maximum shelf life of the processed fish. Considering its high reliability, Thermax’s evaporative condenser was the right choice for capturing the freshness of the fish. 

Meeting the crucial requirements

Assessing the criticality and scope of the application, certain aspects of the installation had to best suit the customer requirements. They were the following:

In line with the requirements, Thermax’s evaporative condensers were customised to fit the refrigeration unit’s cooling demands perfectly.   

Systematic planning by Thermax’s team

Four evaporative condensers of 1,500 KW each were supplied in a single shot to the customer’s refrigeration plant, which posed a big challenge in view of their enormity. Designing the condensers for counter flow and constructing them with stainless steel was an added complexity. The challenges were overcome by Thermax team’s meticulous planning and thoughtful designing, resulting in an excellent and timely installation at the site.   

The condensers have been running successfully without any disruption since the commissioning and have contributed to huge energy savings at the plant. Thermax’s fast execution and reliable service have prolonged our relationship with the seafood exporter leading to a total of 10 Thermax evaporative condensers commissioned in the company’s plants so far.    

“The evaporative condensers were commissioned and handed over in July 2017 and July 2018, and since then they are under successful operation and working satisfactorily,” said the customer. 

Mzuri Sweets Ltd. is a major player in the confectionery industry in Kenya. The company manufactures high quality gumballs, bubblegum, candy and lollipops, all under the signature brand, Mr. Berry’s. The company’s commitment towards quality has enabled it to thrive in a market, previously dominated by both foreign and local confectionery multinationals.

In light of the pandemic-induced lockdown, Thermax helped Mzuri Sweets prepare for a proper shutdown and safe restart. Thermax’s technical intervention ensured continuous operation and productivity at the plant amidst the crisis.    

Thermax’s chillers cooling the plant floors

Mzuri Sweets is known for deploying advanced technologies in its manufacturing plant to achieve the best quality production. In line with its commitment towards quality, the company had sought Thermax’s cooling solutions for comfort cooling its premises. Hence, Thermax had commissioned a double effect steam fired vapour absorption chiller at the manufacturing facility in early 2016. The chiller’s performance has been good ever since the commissioning and the company was immensely satisfied with its operation.

Temporary lockdown in response to government guidelines

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, the Kenyan government announced a 20-day lockdown across the country. The sudden announcement presented Mzuri Sweets with a significant operational challenge. The company was looking for ways to properly shut down the manufacturing plant – all the while preparing for a quick rebound after the 20 days of inactivity. The immediate crisis pushed the plant operators to quickly find ways of sustaining their operations while mitigating operational risks.

Service via ROSS: Re-imaging chiller monitoring and control

In order to ensure a smooth startup and avoid any mishaps in the future, the plant operator contacted Thermax for proper shutdown of the chiller. The conventional way of shutting down the chiller would have been to visit the site, monitor the chiller parameters, and implement the shutdown procedures.

With travel restrictions and social distancing measures in place, visiting the plant was out of the question. This is when Thermax’s cloud-based chiller monitoring system – ROSS (Remote Online Service Support) proved useful in controlling the chiller while being far away from the site. The capability to remotely monitor the parameters, status, and usage of the chiller ultimately ensured a smooth shutdown and startup at Mzuri Sweets.

Implementing chiller shutdown procedures

After analysing the operational conditions of the chiller, Thermax’s technical service expert communicated standardised shutdown procedures to the plant operator at Mzuri Sweets.

• Complete dilution of the chiller to bring LiBr to room temperature
• Isolation of steam inlet and outlet valves to ensure maximum productivity once the plant operations are restarted
• Breaking chiller vacuum
• Shutdown of diaphragm valves

ROSS’s assistance in reviving plant operations

After the short-term inactivity, when the plant operations at Mzuri Sweets resumed, our service expert intervened again for a smooth rebound. As the operations began to normalise, Thermax’s assistance towards achieving pre-shutdown productivity at Mzuri Sweets included the following recommendations:

• Maintenance of inlet cooling water temperature to prevent high scaling and generation of non-condensable gases
• Regular scheduling cooling tower service
• Periodical cleaning of water strainers

Shutdown and revival service support benefits

By clearly analysing, communicating, and enforcing the best shutdown and revival practices, Thermax’s service enabled Mzuri Sweets to enjoy the following benefits:

• Access to the same expertise as on-site services
• Decreased amount of downtime
• No loss of production
• Achieve pre-lockdown productivity when the operations resumed
• Operational enhancement by means of dilution and maintenance
• Increased chiller reliability

Combining chiller monitoring technology and service excellence, Thermax has ensured operational continuity at Mzuri Sweets.  The thorough analysis and great co-ordination between the teams from Thermax and Mzuri kept the plant up and running, despite the unavailability of a chiller expert on premises. By leveraging ROSS, Thermax assures excellent service support for continued productivity in industries even in situations of utmost uncertainty.

CBL Global Foods Ltd., manufacturer and exporter of coconut-based products, is a group company of the legendary Ceylon Biscuits Limited in Sri Lanka. The company is known well in the country for its ‘Sera’ coconut milk, organic coconut milk, coconut water and juices. Being a primary exporter of coconut products to Europe & Asian countries, CBL Global Foods Limited has in place a sophisticated plant dedicated to steam infusion and downstream homogenisation process.

Thermax’s chillers at CBL Global Foods

With the island nation implementing stringent legislation and standards for the food industry, CBL Global Foods introduced a few changes to its food processing operations. As a part of the revamp, the company replaced its cooling machinery with two of Thermax’s steam fired vapour absorption chillers each of 98 TR capacity. The chillers cater to the process cooling of coconut milk in pasteurisers and comfort cooling at the plant. Regarding the chillers, “We are glad to record that since their erection from 2015 onwards, the chillers are in continuous operation to cater to the plant’s chilling load and we are satisfied with the efficiency and performance of the machines,” says Gihan Samaraweera, Assistant Engineering Manager at CBL Global Foods. The chillers are connected to ROSS (Remote Online Service Support) and are under constant monitoring by Thermax’s service team.

Spotting potential problem in the chiller

On 17th August 2019, ROSS displayed a temperature deviation in the chiller at CBL Global Foods’ plant. The outlet temperature was at 6.8°C against the designated 2°C. The defect, if left unnoticed, would have led to an inevitable loss of productivity since cooling is an important procedure in coconut milk processing. Our technical service team logged into the chiller and analysed its previous data logs. The ROSS reports traced back the issue to irregular purging and blowdown of the machines. Failure to perform blowdown in the chillers often results in slow down of operations. In addition, the inlet cooling water was sent at a temperature higher than the designated 7.1°C.

The issue was communicated to the operator and was addressed on the same day. Towards the evening of 17th August, the chiller’s outlet temperature was brought down to 1.8°C against a setpoint of 2°C. The temperature deviation possessed the potential to result in a 3-day downtime of the plant’s processes. Detection of aberration in the chiller parameters and identification of the root cause well in advance prevented unwanted downtime and huge maintenance costs to the company. Quick intervention by the service team with accurate information at the right time led to an uninterrupted production process at CBL Global Foods. Speaking on ROSS, “We also like to express our appreciation to their Technical Services team for providing digital services via internet with their innovative and advanced technology. In the past one and a half years, their smart services had helped us maintain 100% uptime of the machines. We are excited and pleased to use this facility and would recommend ROSS to other organisations for using Thermax Absorption Chillers,” added Gihan.

CBL Global Foods having experienced the benefits of ROSS several times and have appreciated Thermax’s Technical Service team for their timely support. ProiCare analytics from ROSS sends automated mails of the daily data logs, fortnight reports, and other alerts, which helps the company maintain a 100% uptime of the machines. Addition of ROSS to the commissioned chillers gives Thermax the opportunity to collect data, check status, predict downtime, recommend solutions and do so much more that industries using chillers never imagined of such a solution. Service with ROSS at CBL Foods Group is another epitome of how Thermax takes customer service to incredible heights.

ROSS – Continuous monitoring with an automated solution

At Thermax, addressing every conceivable factor of customer experience is crucial. Our efforts to offer excellent service coupled with the recent advancements in remote automated solutions gave way to ROSS. It is a system of cloud-based industrial maintenance, which connects installations across the globe to Thermax’s servers. ROSS enables managing and monitoring the chillers with alarms, trend graphs, and reports efficiently. With ROSS, the exact status of the chiller can be monitored anytime, thus offering customer service and chiller maintenance remotely. Machines across the globe can be promptly serviced by engineers remotely at the slightest indication of deviation in its parameters. The system, apart from speeding up the troubleshooting process, completely avoids the chiller’s downtime and call for maintenance.