About the authorMike Fisher has over 35 years of experience with refrigeration systems. This background includes; service, installation, equipment manufacturing, research and development, project management, consulting engineering, system design and packaged systems.
Energy conservation is a very interesting field. With the advances of technology we have items like solar panels for energy generation or water heating, battery technology for energy storage and new forms of lighting like LED lamps. A recent article on LED lamps caught my attention recently and I thought it would be a good example for comparison to ammonia refrigeration systems.
I often see questions about this and wonder what sort of answer someone is expecting. Almost all industrial refrigeration use ammonia as a refrigerant. Although there is a renewed interest in CO2 refrigeration systems, ammonia is the dominant refrigerant by choice. When compared to any other mechanical refrigeration system the basic fundamentals apply.
I usually observe the surroundings and watch for the color change of the trees during this time of the year. As I was driving back from a project this last week I happened to notice something I thought was slightly ironic. At one bend in the highway there were patches of steam over the horizon. These are certainly more visible during this time of year with cooler ambient weather conditions. As I drove closer to the facility the source of the steam became apparent.
Much of the material used for ammonia refrigeration systems is carbon steel. Though various grades of this material are used for pressure vessel fabrication or piping there is one common problem associated with this.
You might think these two subjects are not related. One produces a heating effect and the other a cooling effect. Once we disregard these differences we can find many similarities in the two systems. Both use a fluid that depends on a phase change to provide their intended function; condensation of vapor or evaporation of liquid.
