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Van Damme - ripening technology

Van Damme is the biggest banana ripening in Belgium. De Laat Koudetechniek has built 20 new ripening rooms here in 2020, next to the renovation of 40 older ripening rooms, These new ripening rooms will last for at least the next 20 years and operature using the most modern ripening technology: the airflow in the ripening room comes from every different side, flowing 'through' the pallets of bananas, in order ripen every single product homogeneously and evenly.

All sorts of bananas from all over the world are being ripened at Van Damme. That is precisely why every ripening room needs to function differently, in order to create the most homogeneous and tasty ripening result. By using 'big scale customization', the person ripening the fruits can determine the temperature and airflow of every ripening room separately. The brand new machinery room ensures a 24/7 supply of refrigerant in order to provide all rooms with exactly the right temperature. This is done by looking at the cooling demand of every individual room, based on which the right amount and temperature of refrigerant is supplied. This is both optimal for banana ripening as well as highly energy efficient. 

The heat that the bananas produce while ripening, is being reclaimed in order to heat the office areas and warehouse. This way, the ripening cells are as good as climate neutral. If anything goes wrong, we can witness and fix this from the office of De Laat Koudetechniek, which is fastest and most efficient. 

Finally, on the roof one can see the fans: these have been built in an efficient and high way, so that they need little space and therefore little electricity in order to produce the same amount of heat. 

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The heat that the bananas produce while ripening, is being reclaimed in order to heat the office areas and warehouse. This way, the ripening cells are as good as climate neutral.

As a loyal customer, Van Damme chose another extremely energy-saving cooling system from De Laat Koudetechniek, because of the demonstrable lowest operational costs of this system. Our optimal business case ensures that a system built by De Laat has the shortest payback period and the lowest use of energy.

Do you want to know more about this project?

Please contact our expert, Olaf van Dooren!

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