Transcritical CO2 Conversion Project

Valley Fine Foods Company, LLC’s Yuba City facility manufactures frozen and deli gourmet ravioli products for retail distribution across the United States. The production of ravioli involves steaming and cooling the formed ravioli prior to it being packed into the consumer package. This project focused on replacing the refrigeration systems supporting the spiral freezers from two production lines with transcritical carbon dioxide (CO2). The Transcritical CO2 Conversion Project consisted of replacing two separate R-22 compressor systems with a single transcritical CO2 compressor rack. The project also replaced the evaporator coil in one existing spiral blast freezer and included installation of a new spiral blast freezer that replaced two spiral blast freezers that used R-22 refrigerant. The anticipated greenhouse gas emissions reduction at the time of application for the Food Production Investment Program grant was 2,649 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The results of the project exceeded expectations for greenhouse gas reduction by eliminating 7,566 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.