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Energy Performance Benchmarking: Considering the Efficiency of an Ammonia Refrigeration Installation
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ated warehouses have been used as a sample application in the following. Refrigerated warehouses have been the subject of numerous energy performance analyses by many researchers over several decades. There are not many analyses, however, that mainly focus on ammonia refrigeration plant. Secondly, the results of the published analyses have, with few exceptions, been grouped to show designers and users average energy performance practice as opposed to best practice energy performance.
| CONDENSER | February 2021 | A Publication of the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration
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he number of countries ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is steadily growing. In 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda it was agreed to phase down hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants for environmental reasons. The amended Montreal Protocol is the instrument that will make this happen. In November 2016, the Paris Agreement entered into force. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. At the time of writing, 190 Parties out of 197 Parties to the Convention are Parties to the Paris Agreement. The goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to well below 2°C (3.6F), preferably to 1.5°C (2.7F), compared to pre-industrial levels. The science and the politics that have led to these agreements are therefore obviously considered conclusive. Within polities across the world, legislation and regulations are or have been evolving that reflect the above two global initiatives. For practitioners within the refrigeration industry, the time for questioning what has led us all to this point has passed. It is now necessary to focus our combined efforts and expertise on the responses to the new regulatory and legislative environments that either are or will be realities soon. The ammonia refrigeration industry, which already uses one of the most energyefficient and environmentally benign refrigerants available, does not have to concern itself with too many of these energy conservation initiatives, right? Wrong. Is this as good as it gets? Is the ammonia refrigeration industry as energy efficient as it can be? If not, how is the energy conservation potential of ammonia refrigeration plant generally (existing as well as new) quantified, and how is this potential realized? Ammonia refrigeration plants are employed in a variety of different applications. To shed light on some of the questions raised above, mixed refriger-
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If users and designers examine their key performance indicators and determine that they fall within the average industry practice bracket, it is tempting to conclude that the plant they possess is indeed as good as it gets. It is, however, the difference between average industry practice and
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