international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551

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Review

Refrigeration with ammonia

Andy Pearson*
Star Refrigeration Ltd., Glasgow G46 8JW, UK

article info abstract

Article history: Ammonia is widely used as a refrigerant in industrial systems for food refrigeration, distri-
Received 11 August 2007 bution warehousing and process cooling. It has more recently been proposed for use in
Received in revised form applications such as water chilling for air-conditioning systems but has not yet received
22 November 2007 widespread acceptance in this field. This review paper assesses the reasons why ammonia
Accepted 23 November 2007 is so popular in industrial systems, the reasons why it is deemed less suitable for other ap-
Published online 16 January 2008 plications and the possible benefits at local, national and international levels that might be
gained by more general acceptance of ammonia as a refrigerant. The paper also considers
Keywords: other possible applications which might benefit from the use of ammonia as refrigerant.
Ammonia ª 2007 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
Refrigeration system
Survey
Refrigerant
Safety
Regulations
Development

Le froid à ammoniac
Mots clés : Ammoniac ; Système frigorifique ; Enquête ; Frigorigène ; Sécurité ; Réglementation ; Développement

1. Introduction applications where there is no technically and economically

viable alternative, then it is essential that the chemicals
The continued refinement of our understanding of climate used in their stead satisfy some fundamental requirements.
science combined with increased concerns on many levels They must be no less energy efficient than the HFCs that
about energy consumption has created an unprecedented they replace. They must be proven to be safe, both for the
requirement for the development of efficient refrigeration sys- immediate neighbourhood and for the global environment.
tems with minimal impact on the environment. If HFC refrig- They must be simple and cost-effective to use, they must be
erants are to be substituted, as seems to be the case in several readily available and ideally they must not require any signif-
European countries, or even if their use is to be constrained to icantly new or unfamiliar technology.

* Tel.: þ44 141 638 7916; fax: þ44 141 638 8111.
E-mail address: [email protected]
0140-7007/$ – see front matter ª 2007 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2007.11.011
546 international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551

Nomenclature Vi volume ratio (–)

 3
a moles per unit volume at 25 C: 40.87 (mol m ) Greek symbols
A dangerous toxic load (DTL) (–) DP differential pressure (bar)
c speed of sound in gas (m s1) Pi pressure ratio (–)
C gas concentration in atmosphere (ppmv or g index of compression (–)
mg m3) 4 refrigerant concentration limit (mass) (mg m3)
CoP coefficient of performance (kW/kW) c refrigerant concentration limit (volume) (ppmv)
M molar mass (g mol1)
Subscripts
n toxicity exponent (–)
c condenser
P pressure (bar gauge)
crit critical
R universal gas constant: 8.314472 (J mol1 K1)
e evaporator
T temperature (K)
i ratio
t exposure time (min)
ideal for an ideal gas

Ammonia presents several challenges in this respect, if it is extremely high latent heat, second only to water in commonly
truly to be considered to be an alternative to HFCs. The max- recognised fluids, and therefore provides more refrigerating
imum charge permitted in an occupied space is defined by effect per unit mass flow than any other refrigerant used in
the practical limit, also known as the practical charge limit, traditional vapour compression systems. The relatively low
for the refrigerant (EN-378:2007, 2007). If the charge exceeds gas density of ammonia, which is a result of its low molecular
the practical limit, and in the majority of cases for ammonia weight, predicates increased compressor swept volume in
plant it does, then restrictions must be placed on the location comparison with the heavier fluorocarbon refrigerants, but
of the compressor equipment and gas detection must be the combination of latent heat and density mean that the
fitted, linked to appropriate emergency ventilation. Consider- volumic refrigerating effect of ammonia is almost identical
ation must also be given to the flammable limits for ammonia. to that of HCFC-22 at typical operating conditions, namely
If it is possible for the concentration in air in the machinery about 60% higher than that of HFC-134a and 60% lower than
room to reach a level of 20% of the lower flammable limit that of R-410A. Ammonia also has a very high critical temper-
then additional precautions must be taken. In some interna- ature, comparable to HC-600a and only exceeded by CFC-11
tional safety codes, for example the European Standard and HCFC-123. This makes ammonia, unlike all of the HFC
EN-378, automatic isolation of the electrical supply to the ma- refrigerants and refrigerant blends, particularly well suited
chinery room is required. In other safety codes, for example to use in air-cooled equipment in high ambient temperatures.
ASHRAE-15 (2001), very high emergency ventilation rates, of- The speed of sound in an ideal gas is given by the equation
ten exceeding one air change per minute, are mandated. The rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
gRT
safety codes are generally conservative in their approach, cideal ¼ : (1)
M
but sensible. For example they recognise that, provided access
to the area containing ammonia plant is restricted to person- It follows that cideal will be a higher value for a low molar
nel with some basic knowledge of emergency safety proce- mass. The acoustic velocity for ammonia is much higher
dures and provided occupants are not restricted in their than for all other refrigerants. This means that higher gas
movements there is no need to install gas detectors for human velocities can be used in the design of pipe, valves and fittings
safety, because the strong smell of ammonia provides suffi- without incurring excessive losses. At 10  C the acoustic
cient warning of its presence at concentrations well below velocity for ammonia is 397.5 m s1 whereas for HFC-134a it
the danger zone. Ammonia is both flammable and toxic, but is 146.9 m s1 and for R-404A it is 143.4 m s1. This also has im-
despite the hazards implicit in its use as a refrigerant, over plications for compressor design, where the efficiency losses
100 years of experience and refinement in the industrial associated with inlet and discharge valves are much lower
refrigeration field has produced a clear understanding of for ammonia (Anon., 2007).
what needs to be done to avoid accidents. In general, if the The combination of high acoustic velocity and high latent
requirements of the existing safety codes are followed, heat results in remarkably small liquid pipe sizes for ammonia
ammonia systems are very efficient, reliable and safe. This compared to HFCs. Likewise the size of the expansion orifice
makes them more attractive for large industrial refrigeration required to control the refrigerant flow is very small. This
systems than fluorocarbon alternatives for which the costs can create a challenge in designing low capacity ammonia
of installation and operation are likely to be higher. systems because the very small diameter expansion orifice
is easily blocked. If a capillary tube expansion device is used
then it is better to make it longer than the equivalent for
HFCs, rather than to reduce the diameter and risk blockages.
2. Implications of the properties of The effect on theoretical system efficiency can be clearly
ammonia for system efficiency seen in Table 1 (Pearson, 2005a). The efficiency is based on
a theoretical cycle described in the ASHRAE Handbook of
The properties which make ammonia so attractive as a refrig- 2001 with compressor efficiencies and pipeline pressure
erant are well documented and clearly understood. It has an losses assumed to be equal in all systems. The key difference
 international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551 547

compressor selection, or within limits through the use of an

Table 1 – Comparative refrigerant performance
automatically variable volume ratio (Vi) mechanism. It should
No. Name CoP be noted that for most compressors the limits of range of
R-717 Ammonia 4.84 automatic Vi adjustment are less than can be achieved in
R-290 Propane 4.74 customised machines. For example the range of variable Vi
R-600 Butane 4.68 might be from 2.8 to 4.8 for a given model of compressor,
R-22 Chlorodifluoromethane 4.65 but by specifying a very small, fixed discharge port a Vi of 5.8
R-134a Tetrafluoroethane 4.60
can be achieved. Likewise by modifying the profile of the slide
R-407C R-32/R-125/R-134a (23/25/52) 4.51
valve to increase the area of the discharge port the volume
R-410A R-32/R-125 (50/50) 4.41
R-404A R-125/R-143a/R-134a (44/52/4) 4.21 ratio can be reduced to as little as 2.1. It is therefore important
R-744 Carbon dioxide 2.96 for compressors operating over a large temperature lift to se-
lect as high a ratio as possible, particularly as the ideal volume
Based upon a standard operating cycle of 258 K evaporating
ratio for a compressor operating at these conditions is far
temperature, 303 K condensing temperature, 0 K subcooling and
0 K superheat. higher than the maximum that the compressor geometry
will allow. The pressure ratio for an ammonia compressor op-
erating at 30  C suction and 35  C discharge is 11.34, suggest-
between the refrigerants listed is in the size of the irreversibil- ing that the ideal volume ratio is 6.04. For the same conditions
ity losses in the expansion process, which in turn is a function with R-134a the pressure ratio is 10.46, indicating an ideal vol-
of the reduced pressure (the ratio of operating pressure to ume ratio of 7.57 when the maximum that the geometry will
critical pressure). Table 2 gives the reduced pressures for the allow is 5.8 as stated previously, or 4.8 if variable Vi is used.
evaporating and condensing conditions of the refrigerants There is not such an obvious connection between refriger-
listed in Table 1 and also gives the pressure ratio, the ideal ra- ant choice and compressor isentropic efficiency although the
tio of suction to discharge volume and the pressure difference. following points should be noted. As previously stated the
It can be seen that carbon dioxide works closer to the critical high acoustic velocity of ammonia reduces the irreversible
point than any other refrigerant, with high pressure differ- losses in compressor valves so a smaller port size can be
ences and low pressure ratios. Ammonia shows lower reduced used for a given refrigerating duty. The relatively high volumic
pressures, implying good prospects for high efficiency, than refrigerating effect for ammonia, comparable with R-22 and
all the others except butane, which is exceptionally low. exceeded only by R-410A and R-744 in the common refriger-
Pressure ratio is a key consideration in the efficiency of ants, means that frictional losses and parasitic loads are rela-
reciprocating compressors because it determines, in conjunc- tively low for ammonia compressors. However comparison
tion with the clearance volume, the amount of re-expansion between refrigerants is difficult because lower pressure refrig-
that occurs as the piston draws gas into the cylinder, and erants such as R-123 tend to use different compressor types,
hence the volumetric efficiency of the compressor. In compar- and the most important conclusion is that a compressor
ison leakage past the piston rings is at least an order of optimised for one refrigerant type is unlikely to give as good
magnitude less significant. In screw compressors the pressure performance with another. For example a reciprocating
ratio indicates what the ideal volume ratio is, which in turn for compressor will require different valve designs for ammonia
a given compressor geometry will determine whether the gas and fluorocarbons in order to maximise the isentropic
is over- or under-compressed. However in screw compressors, efficiency in each case.
provided the geometry is suitable for the pressure ratio, the Ammonia tends to cope better with contaminants such as
pressure difference is a more significant factor in establishing water and oil than fluorocarbon refrigerants. Water will accu-
the volumetric efficiency as it affects the quantity of gas pass- mulate in the low pressure side of the system and will have an
ing from discharge to suction past the rotor tip seals and adverse effect on system efficiency (Cotter et al., 2007), but in
through the ‘‘blowhole’’ (the gap between the rotors). Suitable general it will not prevent the plant from operating, whereas
compressor geometry is achieved either through correct in an R-22 plant excess water will freeze at the expansion
valve and block it. Gigiel and Evans (2007) report that the
combined effect of oil contamination, water and compressor
wear on a large ammonia freezer plant which had been
extended several times over many years, had been to increase
Table 2 – Reduced pressures and pressure ratio for the energy consumption by 43%. However they noted that
Te [ 258 K and Tc [ 303 K even in this poor condition the plant was more efficient than
No. Pe/Pcrit Pc/Pcrit Pi Vi DP (bar) an equivalent R-22 system with electric defrost would be
when new.
R-717 0.021 0.103 4.95 3.22 9.3
R-290 0.068 0.253 3.71 2.97 7.9
R-600 0.015 0.074 5.03 3.16 2.3
R-22 0.059 0.238 4.03 3.02 8.9 3. Safety considerations
R-134a 0.040 0.189 4.71 3.79 6.0
R-407C 0.055 0.247 4.52 3.56 8.4 The toxic effect of ammonia is dependent upon the level of
R-410A 0.102 0.399 3.92 2.95 13.4
concentration in the atmosphere and on the length of time
R-404A 0.097 0.381 3.93 3.15 10.6
the exposure lasts. A chart is shown in Fig. 1 which enables
R-744 0.309 0.974 3.15 1.97 49.1
the time and concentration to be assessed in the event of an
548 international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551

1000 5% probability of damage that the practical limit for ammonia commonly quoted in
5% lethal probability safety standards of 0.00035 kg/m3 is based upon the old IDLH
50% lethal probability
Service Technician threshold of 500 ppm under ‘‘grandfather clauses’’ in the standards.
Exposue time (minutes)

Miljokontrollen request
These are clauses where a previously agreed value is retained
100 because it is in common usage, even after the basis for the
original calculation of the value has changed. IDLH is defined
as the maximum concentration at which escape will not be
impaired by 30 min exposure, which is deemed to be repre-
10 sentative of conditions found in the workplace for industrial
installations. However in the domestic context for typical
small kitchen dimensions of 2 m wide  4 m  long  3 m
high this definition for IDLH seems excessive. In this typical
1 room, which has a gross volume of 24 m3, the maximum
10 100 1000 10000 100000
charge of ammonia permitted would be 8.4 g. It seems
Atmospheric concentration (mg m-3)
unlikely that it would require 30 min to escape from this
Fig. 1 – Ammonia concentration exposure limits, adapted room in the event of a bad smell of ammonia: 1 min seems
from Lindborg (2006). a more reasonable estimate, and 5 min would be a very
conservative allowance.
The effect of large doses of toxic chemicals on humans is
difficult to study directly. Values for lethal doses for humans
industrial accident (Lindborg, 2006). The chart was created by based on laboratory tests need to be extrapolations from tests
the Swedish National Defence Research Establishment for use on other species or from lower doses on humans. Field expe-
in toxic release scenario modelling and is based on the litera- rience from incidents is never sufficiently well documented
ture review, tests and experience. The line on the left of the and the estimates of exposure levels suffered are subject to
diagram corresponds to the maximum concentration that wide margins of error. In particular it has been noted that
can be sustained by a susceptible population (the elderly, in- humans have a higher respiratory rate than animals in acci-
firm and very young) without sustaining injury and the two dent or emergency situations. It is therefore right to take a con-
lines on the right correspond to various risks of fatality in servative approach to these values. In the method proposed by
the same susceptible population. The shorter line in the Fairhurst and Turner (1993) a ‘‘Specified Level of Toxicity’’
centre of the graph is used to determine the risk for techni- (SLOT) is determined from available data extrapolated to
cians engaged in service activity. If the concentration exceeds humans. The SLOT dangerous toxic load (DTL or SLOT DTL)
that indicated by the line then it is probable that some form of is denoted as A. This is usually calculated from the concentra-
medical treatment will be required. It should be noted that the tion that would result in the onset of fatality in the most
concentration figures used in Fig. 1 are in mg/m3. vulnerable members of the exposed population and can be
The following equation (adapted from EN-378:2007, 2007) correlated to exposure at a given concentration for a specified
can be used to convert the atmospheric concentration from time by the simple equation
mass per unit volume, g/m3, to a volumetric ratio, ppm by
volume, assuming a temperature of 25  C: A ¼ Cn t; (4)

4  103 where C is the atmospheric concentration, n is a substance-

c¼ : (2)
aM specific exponent and t is the exposure time. In the case of
For ammonia, with a molar mass of 17 g/mol, this simplifies ammonia the SLOT DTL is 3.78  108 and the exponent is 2
to (Anon., 2006). It follows that the maximum concentration
related to a 5 min exposure for this toxic load is 8695 ppm. A
4 ¼ 0:7c: (3)
higher toxic load, termed as the Significant Likelihood of
In a study for the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen Death (SLOD) can also be calculated. For SLOD the DTL is
(Lindborg, 2006) the Swedish Environment Agency (Miljo- equivalent to the concentration likely to result in fatality for
kontrollen) required confirmation that a concentration of 50% of the exposed population. A value of 1.03  109 is given
1200–1500 ppm would not be exceeded for more than 5 min. for ammonia, which results in a calculated maximum concen-
This range is shown by the black horizontal line in Fig. 1, which tration for 30 min exposure of 5859 ppm. Using the concept of
is slightly lower than the level used for risk assessment for the dangerous toxic load for the original IDLH values gives
technical staff. a value for A of 7.5  106. When these values are considered
Ammonia is not considered suitable for use in domestic in the domestic context two things are clear. Firstly, it seems
refrigerators or air-conditioners because it is not compatible unlikely, given the high latent heat of ammonia, that the total
with the materials commonly used in these systems, particu- system charge would be able to transfer from within the
larly copper, but also because the practical limit results in system as liquid to vapour distributed throughout the room
extremely low quantities for the maximum charge. The in 1 min, or even 5 min. The more likely scenario is that
practical limit is derived from the IDLH value published by a sudden leak behind the refrigerator would diffuse through
the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety the room at a slower rate. Secondly applying Eq. (4) to the
and Health (NIOSH, 1994), which for ammonia was reduced 30 min ‘‘grandfathered’’ practical limit value for 1 min and
from 500 ppm to 300 ppm in 1996. It should be noted however 5 min exposures gives values of 2740 ppm and 1225 ppm,
 international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551 549

respectively. If these values were adopted for domestic alongside the propane and carbon dioxide systems already
circumstances, characterised by small charge systems in rela- on the market. This high efficiency system would be more
tively small rooms, then the maximum charge allowed would likely to be successfully adopted if the practical limit for in-
be 45 g and 20 g, respectively. These ammonia charge values stallations were based on the pragmatic approach outlined
seem low compared to the typical charge of refrigerant in a do- above, giving a significant energy advantage in the domestic
mestic refrigerator with R-134a as the refrigerant, but when heat pump market compared to fluorocarbon systems.
the liquid densities are compared the actual difference in re-
frigerant quantity is considerably less than it appears at first
sight. The density of liquid R-134a at 20  C is 1219 kg/m3, 4. Regulatory considerations
whereas for ammonia it is almost exactly half, at 609.7 kg/
m3. If the maximum charge of a large domestic refrigerator Safety regulations concerning refrigeration can be traced back
is taken to be 100 g of R-134a (Clodic et al., 1999) then the to the early years of the 20th century. Since then the codes and
equivalent design would require 50 g of ammonia. It is not un- standards have diversified. There is now such a wide range of
reasonable to conclude that minor alterations to the con- national regulatory constraints on the use of ammonia, even
denser, liquid line and evaporator could achieve a charge of within the European Union, that it must be concluded that
45 g and to speculate that further optimisation might achieve they all cannot be correct. In France the use of ammonia in
a charge of 20 g. Furthermore the choice of material would not refrigeration systems is governed by the government agency
present a problem provided a hermetic design of unit was DRIRE (Direction Régionale de l’Industrie de la Recherche et
used and the ammonia was completely free of moisture de l’Environnement). This stipulates that systems must be
when the unit was charged, so that there would be no reaction notified to the regional authorities if they are expected to
between the ammonia and the copper in the system (Anon., contain more than 150 kg of ammonia and the design must
2005; Hansen, 2006). be subject to third party examination and approval if the
The comparison of the Specified Level of Toxicity, Signifi- charge is greater than 1500 kg. One of the most unattractive
cant Likelihood of Death and Immediately Dangerous to Life aspects of the French regulations is the requirement that
and Health concentrations over a 120 min time period is any modification to the plant must also be approved by the
shown in Fig. 2. It is clear that it would be necessary to remain regional authority. This gives sufficient doubt as to the ease
in the concentration level calculated for a 1 min IDLH for with which the plant may be amended to suit future require-
50 min in order to reach the SLOT value. It is highly improba- ments to persuade many users to avoid ammonia completely.
ble that this concentration level could be sustained for 50 min. As a result the plants selected, typically using secondary
For comparison of Figs. 1 and 2 the conversion factor given in refrigerants or fluorocarbons, are less efficient in operation,
Eq. (3) must be used. This shows that the levels used by the and so the users are placed in an uncompetitive position
Swedish National Defence Research Establishment are gener- compared to other manufacturers in Europe. As energy prices
ally conservative, and equate to an exposure concentration for rise this discrepancy becomes more significant.
a 30 min period of 240 ppm, 20% lower than the NIOSH revised In the United States the use of ammonia in industrial
IDLH and less than half of the older figure. facilities is governed by the Occupational Safety and Health Ad-
It is unlikely that there will be any move towards the ministration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency
adoption of ammonia in domestic refrigerators in the near (EPA) through various sub-sections of OSHA 29 CFR part 1910
future although it would appear to be technically feasible and EPA 40 CFR part 68. In addition the Department of Home-
and of low risk, because the use of isobutane and propane/ land Security (DHS) is currently formulating additional regula-
isobutane mixtures has been comprehensively demonstrated tions to cope with the threat of terrorist attack on industrial
to be safe, with millions of units now in use. However with in- facilities. It is not yet known how many industrial refrigeration
creasing interest in heat pumps there might be a role for the facilities will be affected by these new rules, although it is likely
unique properties of ammonia in domestic heat pumps that only the very largest facilities will be covered. It is surpris-
ing, given the highly toxic nature of the products of combustion
1000
C SLOD
of fluorocarbons (Pearson, 2007), that large plants using HCFC
onset of
fatality in C SLOT and HFC refrigerants are also not covered.
Exposue time (minutes)

susceptible C IDLH 500ppm

members C IDLH 300ppm
In the United Kingdom the use of ammonia in industrial
of the
population 50% fatality rate refrigeration facilities is not covered by specific rules, but
100
rather is included in various sections of general Health and
Safety at Work regulations. There is a much greater scope
for end-users to develop their own methodology for providing
10 a safe system of working to their employees and there is much
Likely to cause injury less bureaucracy than in either the French or the American
new IDLH old IDLH systems. In other countries there are various additional
requirements, for example, the need for permanent operator
1 presence on sites in Canada with more than 25 kW connected
10 100 1000 10000 100000
shaft power on the compressors.
Atmospheric concentration (ppm)
A review of national accident statistics shows that there is
Fig. 2 – SLOT and SLOD concentrations with IDLH values, no appreciable difference in the fatality rate in these
calculated values. countries, despite the large variation in approaches to safety
550 international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551

legislation. There are so few fatal accidents, and such wide This would prevent the loss of ammonia to the neighbourhood,
variations in system size and type that it is difficult to draw although the resultant ammonia solution would need to be
any conclusion, however the fatality rate due to ammonia trapped rather than allowing it to run to drainage.
refrigeration in the United States of America and the United As ammonia-based water chillers are adopted for use in
Kingdom is in the range 0.5–2.5 deaths per billion people per commercial buildings, there is likely to be an increased use
year (Pearson, 2007). It appears that this level is much the of ammonia in commercial scale heat pumps. The high latent
same in other European countries, and is similar to the level heat and high critical temperature of ammonia relative to all
of fatalities due to accidents with fluorocarbon refrigerants, other refrigeration fluids make it particularly suited to the
with liquid nitrogen and with carbon dioxide in the food heating of low pressure hot water (LPHW) systems for building
industry, although this includes non-refrigeration uses such heating applications, where there has been no natural
as CO2 recovery from brewing and CO2 injection in soft drinks. successor to R-12 as a heat pump fluid.
By comparison the rate of deaths by lightning strikes in the The concept of a semi-hermetic ammonia compressor has
United States is in the range 32–48 deaths per billion per year. been proved in several ways, but at present there is very little
According to EN-378:2007 (2007) ammonia is not permitted demand principally because most ammonia systems are
for use in direct air-conditioning systems for human comfort installed on site using welded steel pipework, and do not
(where the refrigerant-containing parts are in contact with the achieve sufficient levels of cleanliness to permit the use of
air being cooled), but it can be used as the refrigerant in chillers semi-hermetics. If the stator is kept out of the refrigerant
where the chilled water is pumped to air handling units. The flow, for example using a canned motor, then the overall
standard requires that any such system with an ammonia motor efficiency is low. As ammonia is introduced to new
charge greater than 500 kg must have ammonia detectors fitted markets which lend themselves more readily to packaged
to the water circuit. There is also a requirement for automatic air systems, for example smaller water chillers, packaged air
purgers on all secondary circuits, but this fails to discriminate handling units for process cooling and heat pumps, there
between the soluble refrigerants like ammonia or carbon diox- will be an increased use of factory built, sealed systems. In
ide and the insoluble, such as fluorocarbons and hydrocarbons. this style of equipment there would be no disadvantage in
When the wide range of legal positions from country to using a good semi-hermetic design.
country is contrasted with the homogeneity of the fatality rates
across all industries it seems that there is no strong correlation
between strict regulation and fatality rate. It is more likely that 6. Implications for the use of ammonia
there is a certain rate at which the population as a whole will do in traditional markets
something unforeseen and inadvertently dangerous. This leads
to the conclusion that regulations which discourage the use of There is very little motivation to do research on the use of
ammonia, as is the case in France, the Netherlands and Italy, ammonia in existing applications because it is believed that
provide no safety benefit, but penalise the manufacturers in it is already well understood, so there is very little to learn.
these countries by leading them to adopt more expensive, less This is a rather simplistic view, and in fact there are many
efficient systems for their refrigeration plant, for no benefit. aspects of traditional systems that would benefit greatly
from further enhancement. The adaptation of the recently
commercialised technology of electromagnetic bearings, cur-
5. Implications for the design of ammonia rently only applied to centrifugal compressors with R-134a
systems for new markets (Pearson, 2005b), would enable oil-free ammonia systems to
be constructed. This could improve the overall heat transfer
The benefits of using ammonia for water chilling applications performance of air coolers by up to 50% (Shen and Groll,
have been described by several authors in recent years 2003) and would reduce the risk of performance degradation
(Pearson, 2004). Apart from the efficiency improvement, said over time. There would also be significant advantages to be
to be in the range 9–17% (Tychsen, 2003), there is also a signifi- gained in evaporator design to minimise refrigerant charge.
cant improvement in heat transfer, both in the evaporator and There are currently no commercial applications of microchan-
the condenser (Hrnjak and Park, 2007). This offers the opportu- nel heat exchangers to ammonia evaporator duties, partly be-
nity to make efficient chillers in smaller footprints, particularly cause the available size of heat exchanger elements is rather
when air-cooled condensers are used. The major constraint small for the current ammonia market, and partly because
identified by Palm (2007) was that components for small am- the combination of ammonia, water and lubricant could cause
monia systems are difficult to source. Continued development blockage of the microchannels. It is also likely that ammonia
of these components, including electronic expansion valves, will lose ground in some of these traditional applications to
low charge evaporators and hermetic compressors would carbon dioxide; particularly when the evaporating tempera-
make it much easier to use ammonia in small systems. In larger ture is lower than 40  C. Under these conditions a cascade
systems there is significant benefit in air-cooled systems if carbon dioxide/ammonia installation is likely to be more effi-
a method of evaporative cooling is used to lower the dry bulb cient than a two stage ammonia plant, and in plate freezers
temperature in very warm weather. Such systems use a sparge particularly the high heat transfer and low pressure drop
on the condenser air inlet to pre-cool the air. It would be possi- combination offered by carbon dioxide is unbeatable (Pearson,
ble, with an air-cooled ammonia condenser fitted with such 2005a). There is still a place for ammonia, as the high temper-
a system, to arrange for the fans to run in reverse and the ature side of the cascade, where the charge can be greatly
sparge to be activated in the event of a leak on the condenser. reduced.
 international journal of refrigeration 31 (2008) 545–551 551

commercial, les transports réfrigérés et la climatisation

7. Conclusion automobile. Ecole de Mines, Paris.
EN-378:2007, 2007. Refrigerating Systems and Heat Pumps –
It seems counterintuitive to suggest that established safety Safety and Environmental Requirements. Comité Européen de
limits in the industrial sector should be relaxed for the domes- Normalisation, Geneva.
Fairhurst, S., Turner, R.M., 1993. Toxicological assessments in
tic market, but in the case of practical limits for ammonia the
relation to major hazards. Journal of Hazardous Materials 33,
use of a common standard for all sizes of equipment results in
215–227 (Elsevier).
an excessively cautious approach to allowable system charge. Gigiel, A., Evans, J., 2007. Experience of operating an older
There are grounds for adopting a more suitable approach for ammonia plant and the energy consumption. In: IIR
the domestic market, without compromising on safety, in Conference: Ammonia Refrigeration Technology for Today
order to facilitate the beneficial application of ammonia to and Tomorrow, Ohrid.
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