Cooling specialist Slurry Ice Systems has won a contract worth £250,000 to supply one of Scotland’s leading salmon producers with unique technology that will ensure harvested fish are transferred for processing in optimum condition.
Lighthouse Caledonia is investing in Slurry Ice’s latest ice generation system, the first of its kind anywhere in the world to use an eco-friendly flooded ammonia process to produce smooth slurry capable of reducing core temperatures very quickly without freezing.
The key benefits for fish and meat producers lie in the semi-liquid state of the ice which allows it to flow easily and chill products from both inside and out and so maintain quality. The end temperature can be pre-set and then reached and held by adjusting the slurry’s consistency.
Slurry Ice managing director James Duthie began designing and delivering slurry-based chilling systems to the fishing industry, working in partnership with Slurry Ice Systems in Iceland after many years skippering his own vessel out of Peterhead.
He said: “What we’re doing is unique because nobody else can bring together the same combination of years of hands-on experience at sea and detailed technical understanding of the ice generation business.
“Our products were initially developed to meet the specific needs of both the pelagic and white fish industries, but we are now expanding our reach into other sectors.”
The S32 system delivered to Lighthouse Caledonia’s Lochinver harvesting plant comprises a containerised unit accommodating two S16 flooded ammonia slurry ice generators. These can be run together or independently, depending on demand, and are capable of producing a per hour total of 144kW of cooling and around 160 tonnes of seawater-based slurry at 25% mix.
Lighthouse Caledonia is using the system to generate slurry for transporting fish from their harvesting station to their processing plants.
Mr Duthie added: “As well as bringing clear benefits through maintaining product quality, a process such as ours that runs on ammonia meets all new EU guidelines on refrigeration gases, and offers increased efficiency.
“We are the first to harness this technology in this way, anywhere in the world.”
Peterhead-based Slurry Ice systems are already installed on a number of vessels — among them Scottish, Danish, Dutch and Icelandic trawlers — where they are used before processing, and for storage. In other sectors trials are under way with Danish poultry and meat producers, as well as with a Norwegian energy storage company.
All Slurry Ice systems are designed in-house and manufactured in Europe. They are the only CE-PED (Pressure Equipment Directive) certified slurry ice generators currently on the market
