13500 kg Fruits and Vegetables Cooled from Ambient to 0~5°C in 30~40 Minutes: Mexico 12-Pallet Hydraulic Door Vacuum Precooling Configuration

At the origin packing house during harvest season, the biggest fear is not that the temperature isn’t low enough, but that goods come in too much and too fast. Pallets pile up on the dock waiting, field heat migrates inward layer by layer, and if the precooling equipment can’t keep up with the loading pace, all downstream sorting, boxing, and container loading schedules get pushed back. When this Mexico project came to us, the per-batch capacity was already fixed at 12 pallets, 13,500 kg, with a requirement to bring fruits and vegetables at normal harvest temperature down to 0~5°C in just over half an hour.

Site Challenges: Large Batch In and Out, Wide Opening, Fast Cycle

For equipment that moves 12 pallets in and out as a single unit, the chamber door is the first problem to solve. Workers push entire pallets in with a forklift, so the chamber opening must be large enough, but the larger the opening, the harder it is to compress the sealing surface—once a vacuum chamber leaks, evacuation time stretches noticeably and the final temperature can’t be held down.

The second issue is power. The local industrial power supply is 3P-220V-50Hz. A high-power refrigeration system and eight vacuum pumps starting simultaneously place demands on supply capacity and starting method, so power distribution must be calculated clearly at the proposal stage.

The third is the environment. Origin areas for fruits and vegetables have high ambient temperatures and humidity during harvest season. If a conventional air-cooled condenser were used, the high-pressure side would tend to spike, so this project was designed with an evaporative condenser from the start.

Solution and Configuration: Opening Handled by Hydraulic Doors, Time Handled by Refrigeration and Vacuum

For the working condition of whole-pallet in and out, we equipped this CVF-6000 vacuum precooler with two sets of hydraulic vertical doors plus a hydraulic system (hydraulic components supplied by Dongguan Lianyou). The hydraulic vertical doors feature a large lifting stroke, allowing whole-pallet forklift access directly in and out. After closing, they are compressed hydraulically, so the sealing surface receives uniform force and remains stable through repeated open-close cycles—no manual pushing or pressing of doors needed. A KMST-24 conveying system is also fitted on the chamber side, so loading and unloading are completed on the same line.

The chamber interior is 46.2m³, with net dimensions L7500×W2800×H2200mm. Overall dimensions are L9000×W6000×H2600mm (excluding the evaporative condenser), and the equipment weighs 44,500kg—a large-scale unit requiring advance floor and load-bearing planning per the foundation drawings.

The refrigeration end is configured for a 13,500 kg single batch: cooling capacity 1120kW (963,000kcal/h), using two Bitzer CSH9593-300Y units (2×243kW), with a Giant JRL-2020 evaporative condenser (28kW) on the condensing end. The vacuum end uses eight Tongxin 2X-100 pumps (8×7.5kW), with ultimate vacuum controlled at ≤600Pa. A water-catching system and oil-water separation system are configured in parallel to prevent water vapor from entering the vacuum pumps and causing emulsification; the control section uses an LS microcomputer controller plus a Weinview HMI, with Schneider components for vacuum detection.

For equipment principles and available capacity ranges, see our fruit and vegetable vacuum precooler product page; if you have a similar origin scenario with whole-pallet in and out, the CVF series offers models from 1000kg to 6000kg corresponding to different pallet counts.

Measured Performance Data

• Per-batch capacity: 12 pallets / 13,500kg
• Cycle time: 30~40 minutes
• Final temperature: 0~5°C
• Ultimate vacuum: ≤600Pa
• Cooling capacity: 1120kW (963,000kcal/h)
• Vacuum pumps: eight Tongxin 2X-100 (8×7.5kW)

For an origin packing house, the significance of these figures lies in the cycle rate: a cycle takes under 40 minutes, and loading/unloading only requires pushing whole pallets in and raising the doors to compress—no manual labor in between. The equipment can run continuously through shifts during harvest season, goods don’t pile up on the floor, and downstream sorting and container loading schedules become much more comfortable.

It should be noted that inlet temperature, moisture loss rate, and daily batch count are not stated in this case sheet and are subject to the order confirmation document; cooling curves differ among fruit and vegetable varieties, and specific configurations must be calculated based on actual product and throughput.

How to Configure Large-Scale Origin Precooling

For origin projects with whole-pallet in and out and single batches reaching over ten tons, the key to configuration is usually not the compressor tonnage itself, but three things: what kind of door the chamber opening uses (hydraulic door vs. sliding door), how the vacuum system is arranged (pumping speed matching for multiple parallel units), and what ambient temperature the condensing end is selected for (evaporative condensers are recommended for hot and humid regions). Get these three right, and cycle rate and final temperature are assured.

If your project also requires precooling by pallet batch, send us the pallet count per batch, weight per batch, post-harvest temperature, and required final temperature, and we will calculate the configuration based on actual working conditions. For more approaches to origin and export scenarios, see our customer case studies; for specific configurations, contact us directly.