Energy saving analysis in industrial processes by heat pump systems with ammonia as refrigerant: the case of a cheese factory

In the last few years, the consumption of energy has been the heart of many papers about future developments of refrigerating engines. The studies regard especially refrigerating systems used in industrial fields, where their operation can cause direct and indirect effects on our environment. In order to set a limit to the harms induced by the use of synthetic refrigerants and in order to follow up energy saving, it is very important to investigate new solutions. This paper reports a feasibility study on the plants of a cheese factory by means of addition of an heat pump with ammonia as refrigerant in order to recover the termic reject of two refrigerating units and to supply the required heat to pasteurize the milk. It was computed, for the new lay-out, the energy saving and the reduction of emissions of CO2 compared to previous lay-out. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed solution enables energy saving and advantageous effects on our environment