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Aqua ammonia as secondary refrigerant in ice rink applications.

Number: pap. n. 1129

Author(s) : ROGSTAM J., BOLTEAU S., GRÖNQVIST C., et al.

Summary

Ice  rink  refrigeration  systems are  often  designed  as  indirect  systems  to  reduce  the  refrigerant  charge.   Therefore,   these  systems   require  a  secondary  refrigerant   which  inevitably  will  impose  an  extra   temperature  difference  and  require  pump  energy.  The  associated  pumping  energy  in  practice  use  to   correspond  to  10-­20%  of  the  total  refrigeration  system  energy  usage  depending  on  fluid  used  and  pump   control  strategy.  Aqueous  solutions  with  ethylene  glycol  or  different  kind  of  salts  are  the  most  commonly   used  fluids  but  they  have  less  favourable  thermophysical  properties  implying  higher  pump  power   demand.  There  is  a  growing  interest  in  using  aqua  ammonia  (ammonia-­water)  as  secondary  refrigerant   in  ice  rinks  for  both  new  construction  and  retrofit.  This  is  an  environmentally  friendly  and  very  energy   efficient  fluid  which  offers  low  corrosivity  and  very  low  pumping  power.  Material  compatibility  and  safety   must  be  considered  when  designing  the  systems.  Aqua  ammonia  theoretically  uses  55%  less  pumping   power  compared  with  ethylene  glycol  at  -­10°C  fluid  temperature.  Current  field  measurements  show  that   systems  using  aqua  ammonia  may  reduce  the  pumping  power  as  a  share  of  in  the  total  energy  usage  to   1-­3%.  Reference  systems  which  are  about  10  years  old  using  calcium  chloride  would  use  about  10%  of   the  total  refrigeration  system  energy.  In  Sweden  the  first  rink  floor  system  was  retrofitted  in  2007  and  it   is  still  in  operation  with  good  results.  Today  the  number  of  indoor  hockey  rinks  using  aqua  ammonia  is   34  and  rapidly  growing.  One  reason  being  the  increasing  interest  for  CO2  as  primary  refrigerant  which   benefit  due  to  a  considerably  lower  evaporator  cost  when  aqua  ammonia  is  used  as  secondary   refrigerant.

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Details

  • Original title: Aqua ammonia as secondary refrigerant in ice rink applications.
  • Record ID : 30026073
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Proceedings of the 25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration: Montréal , Canada, August 24-30, 2019.
  • Publication date: 2019/08/24
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18462/iir.icr.2019.1129

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