Alfa Laval Debuts NH3/CO2 heat exchanger
Heat exchanger, tied to the U-Turn NH3 separator, to serve growing market for cascade systems.
With ammonia/CO2 cascade refrigeration systems gaining traction in both industrial plants and some supermarkets, Alfal Laval, the Swedish component maker, has introduced a compact NH3/CO2 plate-and-frame heat exchanger that is attached to its U-Turn ammonia separator.
“Ammonia/CO2 cascade systems are growing,” said Tommy Ångbäck, business unit manager, refrigeration, for Alfa Laval’s Equipment Division, at Chillventa 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany last month. “For that we have developed a new compact system with a very small ammonia charge.” The heat exchanger condenses CO2 while evaporating NH3.
Alfa Laval would like to help move ammonia technology into “smaller plants, large supermarkets, and residential areas,” said Ångbäck. The company is marketing the system globally.
Smaller versions of the NH3/CO2 heat exchanger/separator displayed at Chillventa are already installed in cold storage facilities and slaughterhouses, “where you need different temperatures,” said Malin Bengtsson, central communication manager for Alfa Laval’s Industrial Equipment division.
Alfa Laval has also unveiled to the global market a larger heat exchanger for gas coolers in transcritical CO2 systems. “This is an opportunity for rack producers to have gas cooers up to 350 kW,” said Ångbäck. “They are usually limited to 150 kW and we have more than doubled that.”