INDUSTRY INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING NH3: For cooling industrial processes, such as in the chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical sectors, ammonia refrigeration systems are used to provide effective and stable cooling performance. In Europe, Neste Oil in Finland replaced its R22 refrigeration system with an ammonia system. In Belgium, a 500 kW ammonia heat pump was installed in Emerson’s factory in Welkenraedt, where waste heat from the factory is reused.
CO2/HC: A CO2/propylene cascade refrigeration system was installed in a German chemical plant. The evaporator (propylene) in the high cascade stage is simultaneously the condenser of the lower cascade stage (CO2). The liquid CO2 evaporator cools the chemical process down to -50°C.
HC: Operations in the chemical industry and the pharmaceutical business require high technical quality for the production plants. In some new plants built in Europe, hydrocarbon refrigerants have already been used to guarantee the highest cooling precision. For example, in an explosionhazardous area of a chemical plant in Germany, a refrigeration system is set up for industrial, nonstop running, using the refrigerant propylene (R1270) to the HCI-liquefaction. In a plastic production plant of Borealis, a Belgian manufacturer of polyethylene and polypropylene in Belgium, the original R22 refrigeration unit was replaced by an R1270-based refrigeration system. R-1270 has the same thermodynamic characteristics as the HCFC refrigerant R22. Thanks to the conversion, Borealis now saves approximately 33% on its energy bill. In the gas processing plant of NAM in Den Helder,
the largest natural gas producer in the Netherlands adopted a new refrigeration unit with R290 as a refrigerant and a cooling capacity of 2 x 2110 kW to replace its old R22 units. The system consists of two R290 compressor skids, 2 chiller packages and 2 condenser packages, a stand-by propane compressor skid and a R290 drain vessel. The new unit can chill 20 million m³ of natural gas each day.
AGRICULTURE NH3: In the Netherlands, in a 15.000 m2 greenhouse of Maurice van der Hoorn, a Dutch Phalaenopsis (Orchid) grower, an ammonia heat pump was installed, which made this the first greenhouse that runs entirely without natural gas.
CONSTRUCTION NH3: In underground building sites, there is a frequent problem with ground water, which impedes underground works. Freezing the soil around the construction site is an effective method against penetration by ground water and ensures static safety. Nowadays, NH3 soil freezing units are widely utilised in the construction of underground tunnels, stations or building shaft projects, as well as to safeguard excavations. In a building construction project in Germany, an ammonia soil freezing unit cooled brine down to approximately -30oC, enabling construction work to proceed without risk of structural damage.
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CO2/NH3: CO2/NH3 cascade refrigeration systems are widely used where low temperatures must be attained economically and within compressor application ranges. A CO2/NH3 soil-freezing containerised refrigeration unit was used in the underground construction works of a building in Germany. The CO2/NH3 cascade refrigeration system was selected to enable lower cooling temperatures down to -50oC. For earlier applications, please refer to the GUIDE 2012: Natural Refrigerants - Market Growth for Europe” at http://publications.shecco.com/publications/view/23
SPORTS ICE RINKS, SKI SLOPES & SWIMMING STADIUMS NH3: At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, the Aquatic Centre and the Olympic Energy Centre in London both adopted ammonia-based technologies. The cooling system of the Aquatic Centre was converted to an NH3 system. The large-scale Olympic Energy Centre also features ammonia chillers. The new Energy Centre and network built on the site provide efficient and low-carbon power by using biomass boilers and a combined Cooling, Heat & Power (CHP) plant to capture the heat generated as a by-product of electricity production. The primary Olympic Park Energy Centre makes claim to being one of the largest combined cooling, heating and power generating facilities built in the UK. In 2012, Oxford’s popular ice rink was refurbished with an ammonia refrigerant cooling system. A 360 kW ammonia chiller, which requires less electricity to run and reduces running costs by up to 20%, was installed. Ammonia is the primary refrigerant of choice for the new Olympic ice rink in the Belgian city of Liège. The ammonia refrigeration system in the sports facility has a total capacity of 1,000 kW. A central refrigeration plant with ammonia reciprocating compressors was installed to provide a constant ice quality, even under differing framework conditions and heat loads, for the elevated ice track and the ice rink at the Lentpark in Cologne, Germany. In Russia, a large-scale ammonia based refrigeration plant was built in 2012 to cater to the cooling needs of a sports facility: the 1814 metre bobsleigh track in Krasnaya Polyana, which will host the 2014
Winter Olympics competition. At the heart of the new refrigeration plant are four ammonia screw compressors. The ammonia refrigerant plays a key role in ensuring superior efficiency in the project.
CO2: CO2 refrigeration systems have been proven as one of the most promising alternatives in ice rink refrigeration. In the ice rink industry today, mainly in Europe, there are more than twenty rinks that have adopted CO2 in the second-cycle of the refrigeration system and several in Canada that have applied a system with CO2 in the first-cycle as well as in the distribution system. The first application of CO2 in ice rinks was in Austria in 1999, when, instead of brine, CO2 was used in the secondary cycle and NH3 in the primary cycle. In Sweden, similar technology was applied in the Backvallen ice rink in 2006, and similarly, the other two ice rinks (Tingvalla Ice Stadium, Göransson Arena) were built on this technology. In the ice rink Waltershausen and the SAP Arena Mannheim in Germany, as well as the Messe Stadium Dornbirn in Austria, CO2 as a coolant has made it possible to use the advantages of the evaporating refrigerant in ice rinks and also in refrigeration plants with indirect cooling.
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For earlier applications, please refer to the GUIDE 2012: Natural Refrigerants - Market Growth for Europe” at http://publications.shecco.com/publications/view/23
INDUSTRY & SPORTS INDUSTRY, SPECIAL APPLICATIONS & SPORTS
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