Tyneside Foodservice is one of the largest independent frozen and chilled food wholesalers in the north of the UK, supplying meat, poultry, pastries and savoury products to caterers across the region.
For many years, the company was experiencing fog formation outside of its cold storage rooms. Fog build-up reduced visibility and the floors became slippery due to condensation and ice, causing a serious health and safety risk to both staff and visitors, as well as slowing loading/unloading operations of fork lift drivers.
Regular defrosts were required to rectify these problems, resulting in expensive downtime for cleaning ice, and wasted energy for the latent cooling and period of each defrost.
Munters’ solution
Following an in-depth review of the problems Tyneside Foodservice was experiencing, Munters’ climate experts recommended a Munters ML690 with insulated process inlet.
Part of the ML series of desiccant dehumidifiers, this system efficiently dehumidifies in low-moisture applications and is situated in a corridor outside the cold room airlock. Using Munters’ desiccant rotor technology, the moist air from the ambient side is controlled to a temperature of 10°C. The air is then taken through the desiccant rotor, dehumidified and dropped as very dry air over the top of the cold store door (on the cold side at -25°C). This not only treats the moisture at the source, but also acts as a dry air curtain over the cold store door.
The system runs on a complete recirculation, with an insulated process air inlet preventing ice build up.
The result
The results were not just effective, they were fast too. Turning the system on at the end of the day, Tyneside Foodservice noticed the results on arrival the very next morning.
Managing Director Stephen Walton said: “Here at Tyneside Foodservice, condensation, ice build up and fog outside our cold store room has caused us difficulties for some time. Now with Munters air treatment solutions, we have been able to provide a safer environment for our workers, as well as reducing defrost times”.
