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North Slope Chillers

Industrial Water Chiller Systems

Chillers

Recirculating Chillers

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What’s in a name?

Think you’ve never heard of a recirculating chiller before? Think again.

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chiller

Chiller: You Know What It Is

When we think of industrial cooling equipment, the word that most often comes to mind is “chiller.” That’s because chiller is the term most often used in any industry when referring to cooling equipment. 

Known By Another Name

Technically, these units are called recirculating chillers, aptly named for their ability to circulate liquids through a cooling system while drawing heat away from temperature-sensitive materials. Recirculating chillers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, suiting the specific industries they serve. From hydroponics to plastics, cannabis to dairy, and lasers to 3D printing, recirculating chillers are an important part of manufacturing everywhere. 

Did you know that chillers originated in German breweries? Check out our article on how to keep beer cold to learn about how and why recirculating chillers came into existence. 

Chilling Beer

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Keep it Cold

Successful craft breweries have one thing in common: they stay in control of their creation. What’s the best way to keep beer cold?

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Beer: Stay in Command

Flavor, color and texture are all dependent on how beer is made. Temperature control during the brewing process directly impacts each of those three elements. It’s always been that way, and always will be.

Using Ice and Snow

Ever since mankind discovered how to make beer, keeping it chilled has been critical to allowing the fermentation process to work its magic. Fermentation generates heat, so beer makers have had to pay strict attention to temperature control. In the past, most beer producers stored beer in cellars to keep it protected from external heat, while using water and ice to reduce fermentation heat. 

Monk makes beer
A monk brewing beer

Beer chilling methods have changed over time. During the reign of Roman Emperor Nero, distilled water was invented, allowing for colder drinks to be served. In medieval times, ice houses dug into the ground were all the rage in Europe and Asia. Snow was also a commodity used in keeping beer and wine cold. Once the New World was discovered, Spain imposed a tax on snow imported from Mexico that lasted 300 years due to its value in cooling.

In the early colonization of North America, ice caves were essential to keeping beer at a stable temperature. Brewers would layer huge blocks of ice along cave walls, creating a freezer that lowered the air temperature of the cave. It’s said that the success of breweries in Wisconsin was only possible due to the nearby lakes that freeze over during the winter, providing breweries with a massive supply of ice to help with fermenting and storing. To this day, you can still tour the ice caves that used to house barrels of Miller beer. 

Beer Spoils

george washington
A recipe for beer written by George Washington

When beer isn’t chilled correctly, it often spoils. George Washington had a recipe he used to reclaim spoiled beer due to the difficulty of maintaining a stable temperature. Beer production in Germany from the 16th century to the 19th century was banned during the hot summer months. Overheated beer provides “ideal habitats for noxious airborne bacteria to proliferate and caused yeasts to produce undesirable fermentation flavors.” With few exceptions, most spoiled beer is deemed unusable and simply thrown out. 

The First Chiller

Mechanized temperature control wasn’t a thing until 1873, when German engineer Carl von Linde invented the first chiller machine. According to the Oxford Companion to Beer, von Linde saw a need for artificial refrigeration and found a solution using the basic principles of thermodynamics. 

Because cold is merely the absence of heat, to make things cold, one must withdraw heat. Compressing a medium generates heat; subsequently decompressing or evaporating it quickly absorbs heat from its environment. Devices based on this principle are now generally known as vapor-compression refrigeration systems; apply this to a fermenting or lagering vessel, and it becomes a beer-cooling system. 

-Oxford Companion to Beer
Carl von Linde, 1868

Dubbing his creation the “ammonia cold machine” due to the use of ammonia as a refrigerant, von Linde’s invention changed the world forever, allowing breweries to ditch the ice caves and produce beer year round. Today, von Linde’s ammonia cold machine has evolved into modern equipment. Commercial beer chillers allow yeast strains to be kept at their optimum temperature and reduce risk of overheating. They also provide beer with a stable storage temperature that works in nearly any environment. 

Keg Coolers

keg cooler

North Slope Chillers offers the best beer chilling equipment on the market. Our Keg Coolers bring peace of mind to large breweries and home brewers alike. With a white vinyl finish to repel heat from sunlight and insulated layering, Keg Coolers draw heat away from the container to ensure beer stays at a set temperature. Portable and easy to use, Keg Coolers are essential for every brewer. 

Temperature control in beer making is just as important in 2019 as it was in 3000 B.C. By using North Slope Chillers Keg Coolers, craft brewers can carry on the age-old tradition of using the best temperature control solution available. 

Cooling from North Slope Chillers

North Slope Chillers offers easy to install, portable chillers that won’t disrupt your current setup. If you would like to know more about our product offerings, give us a call at (866) 826-2993 .

Dairy and Milk Coolers

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Process cooling has a place in many industries, and is no stranger in the world of dairy production. What role do dairy and milk coolers have in getting milk ready for consumption?

Process Cooling in the Dairy Industry

The dairy industry is massive, with $38.1 billion of milk produced in the United States alone in 2017. As a part of that industry, pasteurization is critical to producing milk for consumer use. Pasteurization kills and removes harmful bacteria from milk liquids. Process cooling controls temperatures during and following pasteurization procedures.

Bacteria

E. coli

As it leaves the animal, milk is inhabited by harmful pathogens, and is generally unsafe to consume. According to Milk Facts, some of these bacteria include:

  • E. coli: One of the most infamous bacteria, E. coli in most of its strains is harmless and used by the human digestive system. However, E. coli strain O157:H7 is a different matter. This particular strain produces toxins that can make humans sick, even leading to death in some cases. Thankfully, pasteurization kills the O157:H7 strain.
  • Listeria monocytogenes: This bacteria can infect nearly anyone and is regularly found in unpasteurized milk. Symptoms found in humans that have contracted Listeriosis range from fever and muscle aches to stillbirths and death. Though pasteurization kills Listeria, it can grow in refrigerated temperatures if the milk becomes recontaminated.
  • Salmonella: If you’ve ever had food poisoning, you probably have Salmonella to thank. While not usually life threatening, Salmonella can cause intestinal issues resulting in vomiting and diarrhea. It is not uncommon to find strains of this bacteria in raw milk, but they are not found in properly pasteurized milk.

HTST vs UHT

Having killed off these harmful bacteria, pasteurized milk is globally considered safe to consume. However, different countries have different ways of pasteurizing.

pasteurization

Milk in the United States and Canada is pasteurized via High-Temperature, Short-Time (HTST) The milk is heated to a lower temperature (about 165°F) than milk in Europe. The milk is kept at this temperature for about 15 seconds before process cooling kicks in and the temperature is gradually reduced to refrigeration levels. As a result, milk has a shorter shelf life and needs to be refrigerated for maximum storage. Most often, dairy coolers or milk coolers are used to stabilize temperatures.

European dairy producers require much higher temperatures, utilizing a pasteurization process called Ultra-High Temperature (UHT). The temperature of milk is heated much higher than milk processed in the United States, to about 191°F. Unlike HTST, milk is only heated that high for a few seconds. This method allows for milk to be stored without refrigeration and giving it a longer shelf life. The downside is that the milk has a different taste, with some calling it a “cooked” flavor.

Keep it cool

Regardless of pasteurization preference, milk needs to be cooled after being pasteurized so as not to burn the milk into something unfit for consumer tastes. Milk coolers from North Slope Chillers offer temperature control solutions that dairy producers need to lower temperatures after pasteurization and ready milk for market or further processing. Contact North Slope Chillers for the best milk coolers in the dairy industry at (866) 826-2993 or by email at info@northslopechillers.com.

Glycol Chiller Systems in Process Cooling

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Glycol: A Critical Chemical

Glycol is a common liquid used in process cooling across many industries. But is it the right one for your chilling needs?

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Process Cooling

Process cooling systems are a critical part of most manufacturing industries. Heat energy is built up as materials are put together and chemicals are combined. Process cooling allows those materials to be held at a stable temperature while the manufacturing process around them continues without heat becoming a worry.

The use of process cooling is widespread. These are only a few examples of the ways process cooling systems are used across the globe:

  • The plastic industry needs cooling to reduce the time it takes to create products using injection molding.
  • Cooling is used in the creation of pharmaceuticals when removing heat from medicinal vats as products move from the manufacturing stage to the containment and packaging stages.
  • Newspaper, books and magazine printers require process cooling to lower ink temperatures and in removing heat from friction caused by print rollers.
  • Home brewers, craft breweries and microbreweries use process cooling to make sure their brews are kept at the right temperatures while fermenting.

Different cooling liquids

Not all process cooling systems are created equal. There are a number of different types of heat-removal liquids that are used to effectively control temperature. These include water, deionized water, dielectric fluids and glycol. Let’s go over the pros and cons of using each cooling liquid:

Water

The most common liquid used in cooling, water is cheap and easily obtainable. An additional benefit is that water is a stable, nontoxic liquid, making cleanup easy in the event of spills. On the downside, water is extremely corrosive thanks to impurities in it such as chlorine, a common additive to tap water. Calcium buildup is also likely due to the fact that it too is generally found in tap water. Using filters, corrosion inhibitors or pure water can help remove these impurities.  

Deionized Water

Basically water without additives, deionized water has all of the ions removed from normal water via filter, reverse osmosis membrane and deionization system. The only real advantages deionized water has over other cooling liquids is that it’s safest to use for electrical manufacturing, due in part to the water having high resistance properties. However, this same feature also causes the water to be acidic upon exposure to the open air, leading to non-stainless steel pipes corroding.  

Dielectric Fluids

These fluids, such as castor oil, liquid oxygen or mineral oil, are also mainly used in electronics to keep equipment cool while providing electrical insulation. Dielectric fluids are often tailored to the material they serve and are very expensive as a result.

Glycol

A toxic liquid, ethylene glycol is mainly used as an antifreeze and for corrosion prevention. In addition, glycol has a low viscosity, negating the need for high-powered pumps that other cooling liquids might require. Glycol is the chemical of choice in process cooling due to its ability to reach extremely low temperatures without thickening or freezing. When combined with water, the freezing point of the collective chemicals reaches well below zero.

water and ethylene glycol chart

For most companies, a glycol chiller is the cooling system of choice to keep the heat away. Chillers pump cold liquids, usually water, glycol or a mixture of both, through heat-creating machinery via pipes or wraps. The cooling liquid absorbs the heat and brings it back to the chiller, which removes the heat and sends the liquid back out at a low temperature in order to draw away more heat.

Other chemicals can be used in process cooling. However, these chemicals don’t have the same temperature reach that glycol does, are less effective for general use, or are too expensive for most businesses.

Glycol in Chillers

North Slope Chillers recognizes the unique requirements that individual businesses have in process cooling, especially when using glycol. Glycol heaters and chillers are tantamount to achieving the best result. That’s why each chiller system is created to be the solution to specific temperature control problems. Chillers can be custom ordered according to size, flow rate, fluid variations and more.

Other issues that might arise in process cooling might be more along the lines of storage cooling, an issue that Fluxwrap was born to take care of. Fluxwrap is a cooling wrap that works with a chiller system to encase a container or drum in a blanket of cold, keeping your material at a stable temperature.

Learn More

North Slope Chillers is here to meet your process cooling needs. Even if your cooling problem is uniquely specific, our team of custom chiller builders are here to find a solution and get you back in control of your temperatures.

What to Know When Renting a Chiller

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Ready to Rent

Chiller rental can be a difficult area to navigate if you don’t know what you need. From the large industrial chillers that can cool a building, to the smaller, portable chiller rentals for process cooling, understanding your exact needs is crucial.

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chiller

Get the Details

So you want to rent a chiller! In order to know exactly what type of chiller will meet your cooling needs, you have to know the following:

chiller rental guide

Let’s break that down into detail.

  1. Determine chiller type: What is your process cooling application? Are you keeping the temperature of your product stable? Or are you trying to cool something down? Or are you trying to keep a space cool? This will help determine what type of chiller rental you need.

  2. Determine chiller size: What is your heat load that needs to be removed? How much heat needs to be taken out of your system? What are the ambient conditions? This is critical, since not all chillers are capable of removing the required heat. Understanding your heat load will help you know what size of chiller.

  3. Determine power needs: How much power do you have available? Are you going to need to rent a generator as well? Chillers use a lot of power, so planning ahead based on your electricity resources is important.

North Slope Chillers

North Slope Chillers has every kind of chiller you need for keeping cool. With fluid temperatures going down to 10 ºF, easy setup and a self-monitoring control system, North Slope Chillers can make sure you’re ready to take on any cooling problem.

Talk to the Experts

Not sure how to match your needs with varying types of chillers? Chat with a chilling expert to find the best chiller or chilling accessory for your needs at (866) 826-2993 or by email at info@northslopechillers.com.