About our cold rooms
Reduce shrinkage, extend shelf-life, and ensure maximum capture of the best quality possible.
Our cold rooms allow maintaining the core of perishable products at a predetermined low or medium temperature, depending on the crop, variety, value chain requirements, and needs.
Each solution is delivered with a specific configuration on temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and airflow to maintain freshness as quickly as possible.
Cold rooms and their specific functions, such as precooling, are the most important method for stabilizing perishables and guaranteeing the shelf-life needed to generate value for both producers (reducing claims and rejections), consumers (guaranteeing fresh produce), and citizens (reducing losses and waste).
Most fruit and vegetables require rapid removal of field heat through pre-cooling to slow down the physiological activity and generate the needed shelf-life while minimizing the shrinkage (the water lost during the cooling process is very aggressive).
For most delicate and high-value crops, each hour of delay between the picking and the pre-cooling might represent over one day of shelf-life loss.
For flowers, as well as for high-value perishables, the rapid removal of field heat, the reduction of ethylene, and the management of the fungi-related risks when entering the cold chain are fundamental to achieving the expected shelf-life and price, especially when planning to shift from air to sea freight.
For animal proteins, cold storage represents a fundamental process for health and safety, extending shelf life and preventing oxidations that depreciate the value.
Freezing processes can be carried out on specific machines or in blast-freezing rooms, dedicated cold rooms that, following industry standards, allow to freeze the animal proteins without altering the structure of the fibers and therefore the value for final consumers.
Structure
- The cold room structure is a modular solution, built in 5 x 5 meters modules, easily expandable so it can grow with our customers needs. It is built with laser cut steel and hot-dip galvanized after welding to guarantee maximum durability in harsh environments.
- Walls and ceilings are made of high density closed cells PUR (Polyurethane) cold room sandwich panels to ensure superior durability and energy efficiency in any climatic conditions.
- The full structure is lightweight, expandable, and fast and easy to install. Completely self-standing and can grow in modules of 25 m², offering dimensions ranging from 25 to 1,000m² and more, with 3 meters height.
- In-door and outdoor solutions are available that can be installed in your farm or everywhere.
Cooling equipment
-
Available in either direct expansion or chiller-based cooling technology.
-
Ranges from 8 to 500+kW of thermal power, determined according to the type of product and volumes to be cooled.
-
Configured and set to maximize specific perishables quality and to minimize energy bills.
-
It can be powered by grid-connected and hybrid solar solutions, with additional solutions for unreliable and unstable power grids.
-
Simple installation, either outside or indoors (depending on system specifications).
-
Can be complemented with forced-air precooling machinery for increasing the rate of cooling and dropping-down pulp temperature as quickly as possible. Solutions from 1 to 20 pallets, multiple units can be placed in the same room.
-
Local maintenance services packages are available for any cooling machine.
FAQs about Cold Rooms
Our cold rooms range from a minimum of 10 pallets to a maximum of over 1,000 pallets
The smaller dimension of our cold rooms is 15m², with a storage capacity of approx. 8 to 10 pallets (1.0 x 1.2 meter). It is equivalent to a 20’ reefer container, but with pre-cooling capabilities and 40% more efficient. The following standard sizes are 30m² and 60m².
Our cold rooms are powered by three-phase electric power (for smaller units in the range single-phase is possible, up to 7 kW of cooling capacity). The power can be from grid only or from a mix of grid, solar and diesel back-up
Our cooling solutions can be designed and delivered for any use case, fresh fruit and vegetables, animal products (meat, poultry, fish, dairy), bakery, and non-food products such as pharmaceuticals. Inspirafarms cooling solutions can pre-cool, cold store, and frozen.
Reefer containers are designed to hold a specific temperature while in trucks or ships but they are not meant to precool. They miss the airflow control needed to treat fruit and vegetables. It is possible, but with a small fraction of the maximum allowed volume. Reefers available in most African countries have low coefficient performance compared to our equipment When they have been used for years, that coefficient performance lowers, bringing up the energy bill substantially. Read more in this article
Yes, both chilled (above 0°C) and frozen (-18°C to -24°C).
InspiraFarms Cooling also delivers frozen projects from 0°C to -24°C. Our cooling solutions can be designed and delivered for any use case, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, animal products (meat, poultry, fish, dairy), bakery, and non-food products such as pharmaceuticals.
A three-phase grid connection, a concrete slab and an access road for a truck with a container trailer. The specifics about foundations, concrete work, slab insulation and finishing are operation and site specific. The concrete slab is part of the civil works and we therefore ask our clients to prepare before the deployment and assembly of our units. InspiraFarms provides guidance to customers on how to approach these civil works.
Our cold rooms are delivered containerized in a kit. Everything is delivered as part of the same consignment. From the structural part to the finishing and fittings. Following the site survey, a local engineer and contractor will be required to fit the cold room.
The ideal temperature of a cold room depends on the product, the stage of the supply chain and the target market. It is important to understand that temperature is not a key indicator of what is needed to treat fruit and vegetables. You can have a room with air temperature at 2°C and still have the pulp temperature of your fruit at 20°C for days.
It will depend on the size and capability of the cooling machine, for which we offer ranges from 8 to 100+kW of thermal power according to the type of crop and the cycle time. For example, cooling down one kg of a climacteric fruit might require as much as 10 times the energy it is required to keep it cool. Cold rooms for avocados for example require a lot of cooling power and a specific airflow. To cool down 10,000 kg of avocados, a minimum of 25 kW of cooling power is required. Enquire from us for more detailed answers for specific crops.
Yes, it does. All cold rooms need ventilation. Most of the ventilation is provided by daily door openings. InspiraFarms can provide air refreshment systems (with 80-85% heat recovery) if needed to avoid build up of specific gases.
Cold rooms are insulated by using sandwich panels. Our cold room panels are made of high density PUR (Polyurethane) to maximize the thermal insulation and grant our clients lower energy bills. Most companies in Africa are still using EPS (Styrofoam), but for the same thickness you get half the insulation from EPS. In addition, EPS is increasingly rejected by higher quality and value chains for the health and safety hazards they bring. Sub-optimal insulation can result in high energy bills, supply chain issues such as rejections and microbiological issues caused by condensation.
Yes, our modular cold rooms can be moved, although it’s a good idea to get the experts to do it. Trying to move the unit yourself would usually invalidate any warranty. The units are not mobile. For re-assembling you will need to have the civil works ready in the new site.
It depends on the size of the cold room, the range (out-door or in-door), and the cooling capacity. For a price estimation please fill out this form.
We are mostly focused on African markets. All our cold rooms can be delivered to any country in the following regions: East Africa, West Africa & Southern Africa. We have cold rooms delivered in Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Ghana, Benin, Morocco & South Africa. Also, we have delivered in Central & South America.
Do you have questions or interested in starting a project?
Get in touch with our local team today!