Sustainable refrigeration technology

Maturing, sorting and packaging exotic fruits and vegetables in a sustainable and efficient manner, with quality being paramount. That is what it is all about at Nature's Pride in Maasdijk. For the expansion of the premises of the fruit and vegetable importer, Van Kempen Koudetechniek is providing the refrigeration systems, the control technology and the insulation walls of the cooling and ripening cells.

"Together with De Vries en Verburg, Klimaatservice Holland and Mansveld Elektrotechniek, we form the construction team," says Jan Vliet van Zante, director at Van Kempen. "With these parties we also realized the current building in 2013. A familiar partnership, then."

Ideal conditions

"Within the construction team, we think along from the design phase in realizing the wishes and principles of Nature's Pride," Van Zante continues. "The most important starting point concerns the products. The vegetables and fruits must be stored, ripened and processed under ideal conditions. At the same time, those processes must run as efficiently as possible. How is the routing in the building? Where is which machine located? We also thought about this together. Moreover, we are fulfilling Nature's Pride's ambitions in terms of optimal user comfort and sustainability."

Natural refrigerants

The cooling systems and facilities realized by Van Kempen keep the temperature in the building at 4 to 6 degrees Celsius. The sustainability lies in the low energy consumption and the use of natural refrigerants. Van Zante explains, "We work with ammonia as the refrigerant and CO2 as the refrigerant. There is a heat recovery system in the installation. This ensures that the residual heat released is reused to heat the ripening cells and office spaces."

Collaboration crucial

In early April this year, Van Kempen began installing the insulation walls. Completion is expected to follow in October. "The schedule is our biggest challenge," says Van Zante. "To achieve it, cooperation is crucial. In that respect, it is ideal that we are doing this work as a construction team. And that everyone on the construction team already knows each other. We know what we have in common and feel responsible for each other. That bears fruit. As one team, we translate the client's wishes into a beautiful, well-functioning building."