how to save water in cold stores

Levels at Theewaterskloof Dam (Picture Source) Gabor Hilton, Engineering Manager at AB Oxford cold store in Melbourne, recently sent through his water consumption figures for 2016. With a total refrigerated space of 1,071,154 m3 Oxford used 72,643KLitres of water of which 31,957Klitres where harvested from the cold store buildings and stored in tanks.   This translates to 68 litres of water per m3 for the year of which 44% was harvested on site. If we assume that freezer stores in the Western Cape also use 67 litres per m3 per year, then a 10,000 pallet facility will use in the region of 250,000 litres of water per month.   Since Oxford Cold Store enjoys economies of scale, it is the GCCA’s 19th largest freezer store globally, our consumption per m3 is likely to be higher.   So where will freezer stores get this quantity of potable water from if day zero arrives, currently said to fall in early May 2018?   That’s what makes Christo van der Merwe’s article attached on water saving so important – Download here   If the taps do run dry and a freezer store doesn’t have access to borehole water an option could be to use salt water. Any mention of salt water prompts the response of corrosion. But if it’s a case of using salt water or turning off the refrigeration system, the corrosion cost might not look too bad, especially if the condensers and pumps had been given extra protection before time.   We would be interested to hear if anyone knows of cost effective methods to reduce sea water corrosion. If it could be managed, then there would still be the sourcing and transport to consider. Read more:  New Pongola Cold Storage Facility Read more: Drought: How a large international cold store survived Read more: Can mobile racking work in FMCG stores?