De Bortoli Wines, Energy Efficiency Improvements, Bilbul

Oomiak has recently completed a refrigeration plant expansion project for De Bortoli Wines in Bilbul, NSW.

The client’s objectives were not only to increase refrigeration capacity but also to improve overall plant operating efficiency. It was with this in mind that Oomiak’s Engineers set about to identify a number of upgrades which would realise significant improvement in specific power consumption for a cost effective outlay and acceptable return on additional investment.

For wineries, the refrigeration plant represents a major consumer of electrical energy as a proportion of the total energy used for a site. Rising electrical prices due to a number of factors, along with fierce competition in the wine industry means it is imperative that the refrigeration plant is maintained at optimum efficiency by upgrading at regular intervals with the most up to date energy efficient technologies as these become available.

The Bilbul winery has a centralised refrigeration plant utilising ammonia to chill a secondary refrigerant brine solution which is circulated throughout the winery for its cooling requirements.

The project was to increase overall plant cooling capacity with the addition of new refrigeration equipment including a screw compressor package, plate heat exchangers, evaporative condenser and associated brine pumps.

Energy efficiency improvement modifications and additions were also made to the plant in order to improve overall system coefficient of performance (COP) which is essentially a measure of the plants operating efficiency. Upgrades included replacing the existing liquid injection method of oil cooling with water cooled oil cooling, installation of variable speed to condenser fans and implementation of a floating head pressure control and also recovery of waste heat from the refrigeration plant to heat water.

Oomiak’s Technical Manager, Mark Twigger indicated that “We expect that the costs from the additional investment in operational efficiency will be paid back in a relatively short time.”

For more information on opportunities for refrigeration plant energy efficiency improvements, please contact our Technical Manager, Mark Twigger on 1300 731 699 or email mark.twigger@oomiak.com.au