CH-03-01-2 -- Secondary Refrigeration—European Experiences ✓ Most Recent

Environmental concerns over ozone depletion and global warming have prompted the search for alternative refrigeration technologies in order to minimize refrigerant usage. Secondary refrigeration can be considered as one of the options available to designers to overcome this global problem.

In many cooling applications, heat is transferred to a secondary refrigerant, which can be any fluid cooled by a primary refrigerant and used to transfer heat without a phase change. These liquids are also called brines, secondary coolants, and heat transfer fluids.

Secondary refrigerants generally consist of antifreeze solution, corrosion inhibitor(s), and biocides where applicable to satisfy the temperature and application range.

A wide range of glycol-, potassium acetate-, and potassium formate-based energy efficient secondary refrigerants has been applied for both chilled and frozen food as well as air-conditioning applications.

This paper aims to convey the experiences gained from European installations and operational problems from these installations from design to commissioning stages and lessons learned from these applications. The important design lessons and behavior of secondary refrigerants for the real applications will be presented in a form that will help practicing engineers, contractors, and consultants to develop an effective and efficient secondary refrigeration cooling system.

Units: SI