The contemporary environment retailers and other food retailers, as well as operators of industrial refrigeration systems, must navigate is in some respects more difficult than ever. Ammonia glycol or Freon, which refrigerant to choose for a multicommodity 5000MT cold storage and why? We are going to discuss this in great detail. So, keep reading till the end.
The Market, and the Refrigerant Choices for the Consumers
Until the early 2000s, supermarket cooling systems, like the majority of the commercial cooling system, mostly depended on the usage of synthetic coolants to chill their foods glass cases, and other cooling equipment. Since then, virtually every sort of refrigeration system user has started to transition from artificial to natural refrigerants, including huge warehouses and memberships club merchants, regional, national, and local major supermarkets, corner shops, and others. Increased regulatory frameworks, associated market forces, societal considerations, and consumer tastes have all contributed to this transformation.
The Entire Process of Refrigeration Systems
It helps to have a basic understanding of how refrigeration functions in order to comprehend why this transition has taken place. For the majority of people, refrigeration just refers to the process of cooling or even freezing objects that also need refrigeration. Therefore, it is more correct to say that when cooling occurs, hotter air is shifted from locations where it is undesirable, like inside a refrigerator, food display cases, or walk-in freezers, to areas areas where it is not otherwise objectionable, like from the outside a store. Refrigeration systems employ a combination of thermodynamics and equipment to achieve this result.
The Industry Standard of the Refrigerants
CO2 (also known as R-744) is the industry standard for sustainable, green refrigeration, with virtually all other coolants being compared to it. It is, in a sense, a natural choice with a GWP of 1 compared to R-22 (1810) and even R-410A (2088). More than 7,000 CO2 refrigeration systems will be operational globally by 2020, with over 700 of those in North America. As an increasing number of users throughout the entire variety of food retailing, from corner shops to grocers, mass merchants, and distribution centers, to large-scale food production and processing activities, embrace CO2 refrigeration, it is evident that this technology is on the upswing.
a. Ammonia Refrigerant
The common industrial refrigerant ammonia (R-717) actually has a lower GWP of 0. Ammonia refrigeration is currently not a viable option for commercial use due to its high toxicity. We’ll have to wait and see if ammonia, also known by its molecular symbol NH3, can ever serve as a workable substitute for refrigeration in grocery stores.
b. Glycol
Colorless, odorless, and sweet-tasting (albeit not caloric), glycol is a liquid. People are most familiar with it as a constituent in antifreeze for mechanical cooling systems and car engines. Large amounts of heat can be absorbed and released by glycol without affecting its temperature. Glycol, also known as propylene glycol or propane-1,2-diol, is a common heat-transfer liquid in industrial heating and cooling applications but is not a refrigerant. Rather, glycol is a liquid that transfers heat from one place to another in a manner similar to how a traditional refrigerant works.
c. Freon
In air conditioning systems, refrigerant freon is a non-combustible gas. For your air conditioning system to generate cool air that may be cycled throughout it, this freon passes through an ongoing distillation process.
This blog is also worth reading for you: – What permission is required for the construction of cold storage?
Which Refrigerant is Best for the Multicommodity 5000MT cold storage?
Ammonia is the best refrigerant. Because ammonia has the highest net refrigeration and air conditioning effect (btu/lb) and frequently the lowest brake horsepower per tonne of refrigeration (BHP/TR) of any industrial refrigerant, it has emerged as the liquid coolant of choice for big cold storage.
Bottom Line
Any cooling system operator must make a complex decision including several factors when deciding which refrigerant to use. Finding out as much as you can about these numerous considerations, not the smallest of which are cost, sustainability, and regulatory consequences, is the best approach to make that choice. You can choose the refrigerant by consulting with the experts. You can communicate with the NSSPL exports and professional for more information.
