2. Refrigeration processes in industries (excluding food)

2.1 Cold-using processes

The application of refrigeration in process industries is rarely at the heart of processes, and its importance is generally marginal, although growing. Moreover, the diversity of applications and processes in which cold is used makes it difficult to classify them in a structured way.

However, among the processes that use cold, we can classify some generic processes that are widely used. These are :

• compressed air production and drying: refrigeration is one of the most common ways – to dry compressor outlet air, alongside the adsorption process –. Air dehumidification is achieved by condensing water vapour;

• extraction of substances using supercritical...