ICS chiller keeps seafood process running

UK: An ageing, failing chiller has been successfully replaced without interrupting production at a leading UK supplier of freshly cooked seafood.

The seafood company imports deep-frozen warm-water prawns from South America and Asia. The product is thawed, cooked, rapidly cooled, packed and shipped chilled the same day. With a shelf life of just ten days, any delay or issue with post-cook cooling can compromise both food safety and commercial viability, and adversely affect yield through overcooking and protein loss.

The chiller supporting the line was originally installed in 2008, when the site expanded from frozen-only production to chilled products, in response to rising demand for fresh seafood. 

By 2024, the unit had reached the end of its reliable service life, with a two-compressor design creating a single point of failure and spare parts becoming increasingly scarce. Failure of one compressor was forcing the remaining unit to operate at maximum capacity, leaving no margin for unexpected load spikes; total failure would halt production entirely. With the line operating at three tonnes of product per hour, 40 to 50 hours each week, even a short outage would have had immediate and costly consequences.

The replacement project had to be completed without interrupting production, while improving system resilience and enabling energy performance monitoring.

Hampshire-based ICS Cool Energy delivered and installed a 440kW Aptus XL air cooled chiller, running on R454B refrigerant.

This maintenance-free hermetic four-scroll-compressor system, was matched to the production line’s peak cooling demand, with surplus capacity to maintain performance if one compressor is offline. A dual duty/standby pump arrangement enabled pumps to alternate.

Preparatory works were completed prior to installation, and the full changeover was executed within a single weekend, allowing the new system to be integrated, tested and made fully operational without disrupting production.