Chilling of salmon in refrigerated sea water

The optimization of the refrigeration process was based on existing systems for chilling of Atlantic Salmon in refrigerated sea water (RSW). Two methods (continuous and interrupted) chilling of salmon in RSW were investigated. Significant increasing of brine flow for fish chilling from 150 to 600 L min-1 results in a slight increasing of apparent convective heat transfer coefficient (from 50 to 100 W m-2 K-1). The required chilling time of fish is similar, but the heat exchange losses will increase 3.8 times. The experimental results were used to verify a model for chilling of salmon in RSW. The simulation showed that increasing of convective heat transfer coefficient above 300 W m-2 K-1 did not influence the chilling time. The technology of “interrupted chilling” has benefits due to possibility of temperature equilibration during passive phase. The total active chilling can be reduced up to 32 %, which leads to decreasing of energy consumption for salmon chilling and increases capacity.