A SOUTH AFRICAN company which has manufactured and supplied liquid ice systems to four mid-water trawlers in the past year will be taking part in Fish Africa.

Pam Refrigeration of Cape Town has installed its patented MicroICE systems on Russian-owned midwater trawlers operating out of Las Palmas, on the Namibian mid-water trawlers Starfish II and Sunfish, plus the South African hake trawlers Staaltindt and Harvest Nandi.

Evert Potgieter, director of Pam Refrigeration, tells FNI: "Simplicity of operation and much faster installation time of the packaged units have resulted in a shift away from RSW systems toward liquid ice systems on mid-water trawlers."

Use of liquid ice is said to have worked so well for the Namibian horse mackerel and freezing company Namsov that Russianowned vessels fishing locally are starting to install MicroICE machines on their factory decks.

MicroICE rapidly cools fish before processing and freezing. The ice's soft texture is said to ensure that fish does not become damaged, while it prevents surface dehydration and reduces weight loss. Melting ice can be used to wash surface bacteria from fish.

This system reduces fish temperature in a very short time, outperforming other chilling methods, claims Evert Potgieter.

Owners can also use the system to achieve improved freezing times which increase productivity.

On Starfish II and Sunfish, MicroICE is pumped into three factory deck buffer tanks set between the graders and freezers.

Each tank holds about 15 tonnes of fish, reducing their temperature to 0-3infinityC before fish enter the plate freezers.

Buffer tank cooling water is circulated back into the stocker ponds, which helps reduce the temperature of newly caught fish.

MicroICE machines have been fitted on the mid-water trawlers Vasiliy Zaytsev of Latvia and Greenstar of Las Palmas. According to Evert Potgieter, these machines are programmed to produce 100 tonnes of ice a day at a 20% concentration.

The MicroICE machines are made in Cape Town with their generators built to PED (European pressure vessel directory) standards and they carry CE approval.

Pam Refrigeration has recently developed an ice generator with a very low refrigerant charge. Power consumption is half that of conventional flake ice systems and maintenance costs are lower as there are no shaft seals or bearings on the refrigerant shaft.

"We have developed a unique ice storage system that allows operators to have thin ice at about 20% ice concentration for prechilling and thick ice at about 40% for storage in fish boxes, " says Evert Potgieter.

Ice is pumped with conventional centrifugal pumps to provide "ice on tap" on the factory deck.

PAM Refrigeration produces a range of MicroICE units capable of producing between one and 200 tonnes of slurry ice a day. The machines have been in production for ten years.

The company provides installation and training services for the machines. It both commissioned the systems on Vasiliy Zaytsev and Greenstar, also trained Russian crews to use and maintain the machinery.

Pam Refrigeration will have a small MicroICE machine on display at Fish Africa to demonstrate different consistencies of its ice. It will also show a MicroICE unit, plus large ice generators.

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