Benefits of refrigerant feed method

The liquid overfeed concept was patented by YORK Corporation in 1925.

For around six decades, liquid overfeed has been the refrigerant feed method of choice in large scale, industrial refrigerating plant employing ammonia refrigerant.

This ARBS  presentation will illustrate how substantial energy savings of around 30 per cent can be made by implementing dry expansion refrigerant feed as opposed to liquid overfeed.

It will be delivered by Scantec Refrigeration Technologies managing director, Stefan Jensen.

The claimed energy savings are substantiated through practical energy performance measurements for several practical installations.

One installation is located in Melbourne; and was commissioned in May 2022. It is one of the largest centralized, low charge ammonia refrigerating plant in the Southern hemisphere.

Other installations are two conceptually identical plants in Brisbane where the only technical difference between the two plants is the refrigerant feed method.

The energy performance comparison between these two systems substantiates the claimed energy conservation potential that is the main focus of Jensen’s presentation.

Jensen graduated as an angineer in 1978. After having held engineering positions with Danfoss and SABROE in Denmark, Jensen joined Wildridge & Sinclair, Brisbane in 1983.

In April 1996, Jensen co-founded Scantec Refrigeration Technologies Pty. Ltd.

He is a Fellow of AIRAH and an Engineers Australia Fellow. He has authored over 40 technical papers for AIRAH, IIR, DKV and IIAR conferences.

He currently serves on the scientific committee for the 10th IIR/IIF International Ammonia and CO2 Refrigeration Technologies conference to be held in North Macedonia in 2023.

The industrial refrigeration system market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 5.3 per cent, according to MarketsandMarkets.

The research firm said the market was worth $US19.4 billion in 2021 and will reach $US25.1 billion by 2026.

The growth of this market is being driven by a number of factors including increased interest in eco-friendly refrigerant based systems such as ammonia, rising government support to strengthen cold chain infrastructure and global demand for more innovative and compact refrigeration systems.

Industrial refrigeration systems play a critical role in removing heat from large-scale processes or products and lowering their temperature.

These systems are usually deployed in dairy processing plants, cold storage facilities, and food and beverage processing firms to control the growth of harmful bacteria.

With increasing government support to strengthen cold chain infrastructure in developing countries, there will be plenty of opportunities for growth in this segment of the market.

The MarketsandMarkets report found the controls segment of the market will see the greatest growth.

The use of controls in an industrial refrigeration system ensures increased efficiency, helps automate temperature controls, and makes requirement-based adjustments. Also, control systems can be used to automate defrost cycles at different times, resulting in significant energy savings.

Companies are heavily investing in R&D activities to enhance the efficiency of industrial systems and reduce operational costs, which is expected to drive the market for controls during the forecast period, the report said.

Ammonia-based refrigeration systems are likely to continue to lead the industrial refrigeration system market during the forecast period. These systems are less expensive as ammonia is readily available at a low cost, thereby reducing maintenance and service costs.

Additionally, ammonia has a greater cooling capacity than other refrigerants; hence, ammonia-based refrigeration systems are more energy-efficient than those based on other refrigerants.

Moreover, the rising trend of low-charge ammonia refrigeration systems will provide growth opportunities for ammonia-based refrigeration systems, the research firm said.