Analysis of fish refrigeration electricity consumption

Abstract

The non-energy-intensive nature of the food processing industry has led to a common trend where management energy has only secondary role to other productions costs, resulting in minimal oversight from management and short-term solution. Within cold storage facilities, 60–70 % of the electrical energy used is for refrigeration. For fish processing companies, one of the main energy users are the refrigeration units. The aim of the current paper is to make an algorithm based on case study in order to evaluate fish refrigeration electricity consumption and compare results with similar studies.Energy consumption for processing fish depends on installation, equipment and process. Process of cooling and refrigeration builds up about 16 % of the total energy in canning sector. This study has shown that refrigeration builds up about 24 % in average. From calculations, it can be concluded that average electricity consumption for fish refrigeration at the factory is 380 kWh per ton of product. In literature, sources it can be found that electricity consumption for industrial freezers are 70–130 kWh per ton of product.