The extremely hot and dry climate of the Kellogg’s food processing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, provided a cooling and energy consumption challenge many companies face: how to keep their buildings cool without continuing to spend tremendous amounts of money. Specifically, the challenge was to keep Kellogg’s compressor room at 86°F while ambient conditions reach as high as 120°F). The application — a processing plant at sea level elevation — was determined to need 50 tons of cooling. If Kellogg’s opted to cool with traditional methods, they would consume roughly 60kW during peak cooling conditions.

To accomplish their goals, the company chose Coolerado to provide energy-efficient cooling in its manufacturing plant. Ten Coolerado M50s will cool 19,800 cu ft of high heat load industrial air compressor space. According to Coolerado officials, its technology is scalable to meet the customer’s cooling needs with ease and simplicity. For Kellogg’s this meant they could accomplish their application requirements and save money.

For the installation, two wall-mounted thermostats each control five M50s. All ten M50s cool a room with ten low-pressure, lobe-type blowers. The hot air is exhausted through two fans installed on the roof.

Each M50 sits on a heavy-duty galvanized steel frame support. Each support has four .5-in bolts to level the units. A 2-in welded stainless steel water line with .5-in pipe feeds the units. A water pressure regulator is installed upstream of the water filter to each unit. A water flow meter on the 2-in line feeds the units to monitor water flow, and a 1.5-in galvanized steel drain line connects to an underground sanitary or process sewer.

It is predicted that the Coolerado system will only use 7.1kw during peak power conditions.  A traditional system would consume as much as 60kW. This equated to an energy reduction of 88%. In terms of a direct dollar save due to the large energy reduction, the Coolerado system will save over $62,000 annually.

Not only will this installation save the Mexicali plant a large amount of money, but the Coolerado system will also reduce their carbon footprint. In furthering Kellogg’s green mission, the Coolerado system will only emit 27.37 tons of CO₂, compared to 231.41 tons of CO₂ that would be emitted from a traditional air conditioner.

Coolerado said its air conditioners offer an environmentally responsible choice because they use up to 90% less energy and boast an Energy Efficiency Ratio of 40 plus. That translates into lower carbon emissions. Traditional air conditioners use chemical refrigerants, evaporators, and energy-consuming compressors to transfer or reject heat. Coolerado uses patented heat and mass exchangers (HMX) to cool ambient air through a process called indirect evaporative cooling. This means only cool, fresh air is brought into the building.