Ammonia heat pumps installed in Norway meet high customer satisfaction. Detailed performance data after more than 15,000 hours of reliable operation were presented by Mayekawa in the Technology session of the ATMOsphere Europe 2012 conference. Comparative study by Johnson Controls indicates that ammonia systems perform well in Southern Europe with yearly energy savings of 25% over the reference R22 system.

Although the Technology case studies session at the ATMOsphere Europe conference in Brussels, held 5-7 November 2012, was focused mostly on R744 commercial refrigeration, two of the presentations brought the latest performance data from two industrial ammonia heat pump installations and the results of comparative study looking at the energy consumption of various systems in warm climate.

Industrial heat pump plants in Norway

Jan Boone from Mayekawa Europe opened the first of the two technology sessions with a field case from Norway’s slaughterhouse. Two sets of MYCOM NH₃ over-compression heat pump screw compressors were installed to supply additional 2400kW of 52°C hot water. The output temperature was achieved by combination of condensing temperature 57°C and pressure 23 bar. The installation was completed in 8 weeks and system was put into full operation in October 2011. According to latest performance data, the average COP-h for the first 11 months was at 5.5. The new heat pumps save 1.6 GW of fuel per year (approximately 210,000 liters) and met with high satisfaction from the customer.

The second case study from Mayekawa informed about industrial ammonia heat pumps for cooling and heating installed at an energy station in Norway. Two heat pumps each of 1350kW for 77°C hot water used for district heating operate for over 13,000 hours with yearly overall COP-h above 3. Compared to classic boiler, savings of 72% input energy were achieved.

Ammonia outperforming R22 in warm climates

Alexander Cohr Pachai from Johnson Controls presented results of his calculations - a comparative study of several systems with 300kW capacity at -10°C in simulated environment of Athens, Greece. The energy consumption of reference R22 system was compared to systems with ammonia and hydrocarbon R290. The ammonia system with cooling tower and average COP of 4.75 clearly outperformed the reference R22 system with COP 3.52. According to presented data, yearly energy savings of more than 25% are possible with the ammonia system. R290 system with average COP of 4.72 also outperformed the R22 system in the warm climate throughout the year including the hottest months of July and August.

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