The redesigned Linde impingement freezer can help improve yields and maintain product weight. It reduces dehydration losses by up to four or five times those of mechanical methods and up to two or three times those of conventional cryogenic freezers. The process can handle a wide variety of products, and has been described as “ideal” for items such as marinated chicken.
The design incorporates a series of improvements, including an update to the atomisation of liquid nitrogen at the heart of the process.
Speaking to GlobalMeatNews, Erik Fihlman, program manager for Linde, said this was the first comprehensive overhaul of the impingement process in more than a decade.
“We optimised the technology – from heat transfer to exhaust – to tightly maintain temperature control, increase production rates and reduce operating costs,” said Fihlman. “The result for our customers will be a more consistent and reliable operation over a standard shift, and usually much longer, even at high volumes.”
Fihlman added that its impingement freezers typically required 60% less floor space than conventional cryogenic tunnel freezers to achieve the same production rate.
In 2017, The Linde Group generated revenue of US$21.1bn, making it one of the leading gas and engineering companies in the world, according to Fihlman, with approximately 58,000 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide.