Star partners seafood processor in cool £1.3m project.
Star Refrigeration has completed a major £1.3M cooling project in partnership with leading seafood processing firm Macrae Edinburgh, at a brand new facility in Livingston.
Macrae Edinburgh is the long-standing partner of supermarket chain Waitrose, supplying a wide range of ready-to-eat seafood. The company is part of the Macrae Food Group, one of the UK’s largest seafood processing firms and a subsidiary of Young’s Seafood Limited.
Cooling solutions specialist Star partnered Macrae Edinburgh on the design and installation of a refrigeration system at its new seafood processing plant in Livingston. The state-of-the-art facility is designed for processing smoked salmon, mackerel and shellfish for Waitrose.
Star worked hand-in-hand with Macrae Edinburgh throughout the project. After advising on various technical options and plant design, Star and Macrae developed a cooling solution that offered optimum performance and value.
Star’s partnering approach included agreeing a guaranteed maximum price and ensuring the project was delivered on budget. Star’s refrigeration plant is energy efficient and environmentally conscious.
It provides cooling for chilling and freezing equipment, as well as various cold storage and seafood processing areas on site.
The chilled glycol system operates with ammonia as the primary refrigerant. The plant offers numerous benefits including low maintenance and reduced energy consumption, as well as the environmental advantages associated with ammonia as a natural refrigerant.
Cooling to the factory is provided at two temperature levels. Low temperature (-37°C) ammonia is circulated to a spiral freezer and three blast freezers. Propylene glycol is pumped to air coolers serving blast chillers, holding areas and air handling units for working areas.
The refrigeration plant’s design incorporates a variety of energy saving features designed to minimise running costs. These include floating head pressure control, heat recovery off the high stage compressor discharge for water heating, hot gas defrosting, optimised compressor sequencing control and an automatic air purger.
The refrigeration plant features a computerised control system for monitoring and optimising operating conditions. Star-owned electrical contractors Penec provided the refrigeration wiring and starter/control panels for the project.
The project forms the latest in a long line of work completed by Star for the Macrae Food Group, spanning four decades. In the last four years Star has partnered Macrae on three major refrigeration plant installations at its Fraserburgh site.
Star Refrigeration is the UK’s largest independent industrial refrigeration engineering company. Star focuses on the design, manufacture, installation, commissioning and maintenance of industrial refrigeration systems. The company offers a turnkey package to all users of refrigeration plant.
