Lesson 8 - Refrigeration Technology
This lesson takes a closer look at refrigeration technology. It reviews the different primary and secondary refrigerants and explores the technology required to deliver primary refrigeration to the brewery. It concludes by looking at how refrigeration is used within the brewery.
Refrigeration Uses in the Brewery
Refrigeration is used is many places within the brewery, and there are many options to consider for these uses. The Heat Transfer unit covers this in detail, so we will just briefly summarise some of these uses now.
Vessel cooling
The process of vessel cooling uses a huge amount of refrigeration. Historically, this was achieved by either cooling an enclosed room, or by cooling each vessel individually. Vessels can be cooled by the direct expansion of ammonia in refrigeration coils on the vessels. This process is described above in regard to the direct expansion evaporator. Vessels can also be cooled by using a secondary refrigerant. There has also, recently, been a move towards cooling vessels using pumped loops with external heat exchangers. This can allow for the use of smaller jackets, or even the elimination of jackets altogether.
Chill water production
After vessel cooling, chill water is the second biggest user of refrigeration. Chill water is often produced directly using primary refrigeration.